Demographics of Argentina

This article is about the demographics features of the population of Argentina, including distribution, ethnicity, economic status and other.

Origins and ethnicity

Queen and Princesses of the 2004 National Immigrants' Festival, Oberá, Misiones.

Children at school, Buenos Aires.

Argentine Gaucho.

Main article: Immigration in Argentina

Unlike most of its neighbouring countries, Argentina's population descends overwhelmingly from Europeans. Most of the population is made up of descendants of Spanish, Italian and other European settlers. According to the CIA World Factbook, 97% of Argentinians are ethnically white.

Some demographers put Argentina as one of the highest percentages of Caucasians in the world, after Australia, Canada and the United States. Like these nations, Argentina was founded by large waves of foreign immigration and settlement, and like its smaller neighbor, Uruguay, the country has a degree of racial, ethnic and cultural diversity.

Waves of immigrants from European countries arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The main contributors were France (mostly settled in Buenos Aires city and province), Eastern European nations such as Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans region (especially Greece, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro), Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland (Buenos Aires and Patagonia), and Scandinavia (especially Sweden). Smaller waves of settlers from Australia, South Africa and the United States are recorded in Argentine immigration records.

The overwhelming majority of Argentina's Jewish community (2% of the population), also derives from immigrants of Northern and Eastern European origin — Ashkenazi Jews. It is the largest Jewish community in Latin America and fifth largest in the world. Buenos Aires itself is said to have 100,000 practising Jews, one of the largest Jewish urban centers.

Small numbers of people from Far East Asia have also settled Argentina, mainly in Buenos Aires. The first Asian-Argentines were of Japanese descent, but Koreans, Vietnamese, Chinese and Laotians soon followed, and there's a sizable community of South Asians from India and Pakistan.^{[citation needed]}

In recent decades, especially during the 1990s, there has been a substantial influx of immigrants from neighboring South American countries, mainly from Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia, and others from Central American countries. Argentina had a rise of immigration from African countries (mostly from Angola, Mozambique and west Africa) in the early 2000s.

The rate of Argentine emigration to Europe (especially to Spain and Italy, others went to France, Germany and the UK), and North America has gratly slowed during the 1990s, especially to the United States, where Argentinan-American communities flourished since the 1960s in Miami, Florida, followed by New York City, Chicago and the Los Angeles area.^{[citation needed]}

Colonies

Most immigrants, regardless of origin, settled in the city of Buenos Aires or around (Greater Buenos Aires or Buenos Aires Province). However, in the first stages of immigration, some formed colonies (especially agricultural colonies) in other parts of the country, often encouraged by the Argentine government and/or sponsored by private individuals and organizations.

Many Scandinavian, British and Irish immigrants settled in Patagonia; today, the Chubut Valley has a significant Welsh-descended population and retains many aspects of Welsh culture. German and Swiss colonies settled in the provinces of Entre Ríos, Misiones, Formosa, Córdoba Province and Patagonia, as well as in Buenos Aires itself.

Immigration from the Chilean island of Chiloé made up much of the labour force in the southern region of Patagonia during the late 19th century. Today, seasonal migration of farm laborers along with many miners in the Andean provinces come from Chile, or Peru and Bolivia.

Indigenous peoples

According to the INDEC's Complementary Survey of Indigenous Peoples (ECPI) 2004 - 2005 ^[1] only 318,683 persons (0.8% of the total population) were counted as pertaining in active affiliation, or descending in first generation, to an indigenous community. These parameters may have led to a considerable undercount in the official figure of the indigenous population, as most indigenous Argentines are no longer tribally affiliated, and most of these have not been so for several generations. In addition, some 2.8% of Argentine homes have at least one member that is recognized as pertaining to an indigenous community.

Population and growth

Demographics of Argentina, data from FAO, year 2005; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

The Argentine population has one of Latin America's lowest growth rates (about one percent per annum), and it also enjoys a comparatively small infant mortality rate. The age structure of the population is therefore similar to that of more developed countries, with a median age of about 29 years and a life expectancy of 75 years at birth.

As per the 2001 census [INDEC], the total population is 36,260,130, of which 1,527,320 (4.2%) were born abroad. The Argentine census agency estimates 38,592,150 for June 2005. This figure turns out to be lower than expected prior to the census; the difference was attributed to the impact of the economic recession.

Demographic distribution

Eighty percent of the Argentine population resides in cities or towns of more than two thousand inhabitants, and over one-third lives in the Greater Buenos Aires area. With 11.5 million inhabitants, this sprawling metropolis serves as the focus for national life.

An additional 1.1 million people live in the metropolitan area of Rosario, and 1.3 million in the city of Córdoba. Most of the Argentine population lives in the corresponding provinces (Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Córdoba).

The rest of the country is, by comparison, under-populated; for example, the whole southern province of Santa Cruz has about 200,000 inhabitants. Large extensions of the Argentine territory are dedicated to agriculture and pastures.

Economic status

Main article: Economy of Argentina

Argentines enjoy high standards of living compared to other Latin American countries; half the population considers itself middle class. The general empoverishment of the country during the last part of the 1990s, culminating with the economic crisis at the turn of the millennium, have greatly diminished this impression. As of 2006, about 30% of the population is under the official poverty line, and income distribution has become considerably unequal.

The educational level is good, at least in urban areas with ready access to public schools and universities. The Argentine literacy rate is very high (98.1%).

Huge ranches, called estancias, cover much of the Pampa and Patagonia. Some rural people work on estancias, while others own small farms. As a general rule, country people do not live as well as city people. Because of this fact the rural population is declining as farm workers seek better life in the cities. Many rural houses are built of adobe. The poorer people live in houses with adobe walls, dirt floors, and roofs of straw and mud. Wealthy landowners have elegant country estates and luxurious city homes.

Linguistic survey

A film poster in Buenos Aires. The title exemplifies the phenomenon of voseo.

Main article: List of Indigenous languages in Argentina

The official language of Argentina is Spanish, and it is spoken by practically the entire population in several different dialects. The most common dialect of Spanish in Argentina is Rioplatense Spanish, and it is so named because it evolved in the central areas around the Río de la Plata basin. Rioplatense Spanish is the standard form of Spanish as used by the Argentine media. Its distinctive feature is voseo; the use of the pronoun vos instead of tú for the second person singular. The province of Córdoba has a dialect with a particularly curious intonation pattern. People in the province of Mendoza speak a dialect influenced by Chilean Spanish, while in the north-eastern provinces of Formosa, Corrientes and Misiones there is influence from Paraguayan Spanish, and in the north-western Andean provinces influence from Bolivian Spanish. Along the Brazilian border it is quite common to hear a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish.

Some people in the litoral provinces of the north-east speak Guaraní, an Amerindian language, usually mixing it with Spanish. Guaraní holds official status alongside Spanish in the province of Corrientes. Quechua, another Amerindian language, is also spoken by some people but is confined primarily to Santiago del Estero.

There is a small but prosperous community of Argentine Welsh-speakers in the province of Chubut, in the Patagonia, who descend from 19th century immigrants.

English language is a required subject in many schools, and there are also many private English-teaching academies and institutions. Young people have become accustomed to English through movies and the Internet, and knowledge of the language is also required in many jobs, so most middle-class children and teenagers now speak, read and/or understand it with various degrees of efficiency.

Due to the similarity with Spanish and the social influence of both countries, the average Argentine can also understand Italian and Portuguese, if spoken clearly.

Many Argentines also speak other Indo-European languages due to the vast number of immigrants from Europe that came to Argentina.

Demographic data

Population pyramid

Population: 39,921,833 (June 2006 est.)

Age structure:

• 0-14 years: 25.2% (2006)
• 15-64 years: 64.1% (2006)
• 65 years and over: 10.6% (2006)

Median age:

• Total: 29.7 years
• Male: 28.8 years
• Female: 30.7 years (2006 est.)

Annual population growth rate: 0.96% (2006 est.)

Birth rate: 16.73 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate: 7.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:

• At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
• Under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
• 15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
• 65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
• Total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

• Total: 14.73 deaths/1,000 live births (2006)

Life expectancy at birth:

• Total population: 76.12 years
• Male: 72.38 years
• Female: 80.05 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.16 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS:

• Adult prevalence rate: 0.7% (2001 est.)
• People living with HIV/AIDS: 130,000 (2001 est.)
• Deaths: 1,500 (2003 est.)

Ethnic groups:

• White (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%
• Mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry), Amerindian, or other non-white groups represent the remainder

Religions:

Main article: Religion in Argentina

• Nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing)
• Protestant 2%
• Jewish 2%
• Other, including non-confessional and atheists 4%

Languages:

• Spanish (official; most spoken dialect: Rioplatense Spanish)
• Italian, English, French, German, Welsh, Yiddish,
• Guaraní (official in Corrientes; spoken also in north-eastern litoral areas, near Paraguayan border, and by Paraguayan immigrants)
• Portuguese (near Brazilian border)
• Quechua (in decline, found in the northwest provinces, primarily in Santiago del Estero)

Literacy (defined as individuals of age 15 and over who can read and write):

• Total population: 97.1%
• male: 97.1%
• female: 97.1% (2003 est.)

See also

• Immigration in Argentina
• Spanish settlement in Argentina
• Basque settlement in Argentina
• Welsh settlement in Argentina
• English settlement in Argentina
• Irish settlement in Argentina
• Swedish settlement in Argentina
• Montenegrins in Argentina

Sources

References

Categories

Find

Find