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El Salvador - People

El Salvador's population numbers about 6.1 million. Almost 90% is of mixed Indian and Spanish extraction. About 1% is indigenous; very few Indians have retained their customs and traditions. The country's people are largely Roman Catholic and Protestant. Spanish is the language spoken by virtually all inhabitants. The capital city of San Salvador has about 1.7 million people; an estimated 37.5% of El Salvador's population lives in rural areas.

Although historically El Salvador has been home to a culturally diverse mix of peoples including blacks, Indians, Hispanics, and North Europeans, by the 1980s the population of the country was essentially homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and basic cultural identity. Virtually all Salvadorans spoke Spanish, the official language, as their mother tongue, and the vast majority could be characterized as mestizos (or ladinos, a term more commonly used in Central America), meaning persons of mixed biological ancestry who follow a wide variety of indigenous and Hispanic customs and habits that over the centuries have come to constitute Spanish- American cultural patterns.

In contrast to most other Central American countries, El Salvador no longer possessed an ethnically or linguistically distinct Indian population, although persons of Indian racial or cultural heritage still lived in the western departments of the country. During the twentieth century, this population was rapidly assimilated into the dominant Hispanic culture. Similarly, there was no ethnically or culturally distinct black population.

In spite of ethnic homogeneity, however, Salvadoran society in the 1980s exhibited strong contrasts in life-style based on extremes of great wealth and abject poverty. These contrasting life-styles, in turn, created serious rifts in Salvadoran society that effectively divided the population into distinctive subcultural groups.

The small proportion of society constituting a middle class — about 8 percent in the early 1980s — included skilled workers, government employees, professionals, school teachers, smallholders, small businessmen, and commercial employees. These people were caught between the polar extremes of wealth and poverty. The small percentage of the labor force employed in industry was somewhat better off than agricultural workers, but only about 12.8 percent of the labor force was employed in industry in 1961, and by 1971 that number had dropped to 9.8 percent.

The vast majority of Salvadorans were members of the lower sector of the population, which was composed of full- or part-time laborers, peasant smallholders, and the unemployed. Although there was considerable diversity within this large social sector, most of its members shared the common denominators of dependence on the cash economy and insufficient earning power for even a minimally adequate standard of living. The variation within this population reflected degrees of landlessness, types of employment, residence locations, and relationship with economic and military power holders.

After a long series of dictatorships (1932-1979) and numerous political and social conflicts, there have been major migratory movements in El Salvador. Some are the result of the urban growth process and mass migration (displacement) of peasants caused by the armed conflict, while others are due to such processes as reintegrating former combatants and deportees from the United States. Yet others are caused by displacement as a result of natural disasters, to which El Salvador is extremely vulnerable.

Salvadorans fled during the 1979 to 1992 civil war mainly to the United States but also to Canada and to neighboring Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Emigration to the United States increased again in the 1990s and 2000s as a result of deteriorating economic conditions, natural disasters (Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and earthquakes in 2001), and family reunification. At least 20% of El Salvador's population lives abroad. The remittances they send home account for close to 20% of GDP, are the second largest source of external income after exports, and have helped reduce poverty.

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. The population of El Salvador increased from 1.9 million inhabitants in 1950 to 4.1 million in 1975 and 4.7 million in 1984, at which time it was projected to increase to 8.8 million by the year 2000. In other words, the population would have doubled in each quarter-century since 1950. This final doubling did not happen

El Salvador is well into its demographic transition, experiencing slower population growth, a decline in its number of youths, and the gradual aging of its population. As in other countries in the region, the family planning (FP) movement began in El Salvador at the initiative of a group of professionals - the Asociación Demográfica Salvadoreña [ADS] - concerned about rapid population growth and the high rate of illegal abortions due to unplanned pregnancies.

Despite the creation of the Comprehensive Population Policy in 1974, the government provided no subsequent evidence of a clear commitment to family planning. Health policies in El Salvador were based on pledges made at international conferences. As in other countries in Latin America, poverty, rural residency, education level, machismo, cultural and religious beliefs, gender discrimination, gender-based violence, and medical barriers had affected the government’s effectiveness in promoting family planning.

At the beginning of the new millennium, El Salvador had achieved a sustained decrease in its total fertility rate to 2.8 children per woman. The increased use of family planning substantially lowered El Salvador's fertility rate, from approximately 6 children per woman in the 1970s to replacement level today. A 2008 national family planning survey showed that female sterilization remained the most common contraception method in El Salvador - its sterilization rate is among the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean - but that the use of injectable contraceptives is growing. Fertility differences between rich and poor and urban and rural women are narrowing.

According to the 2008 Encuesta de Salud Familiar (FESAL, National Family Health Survey), the two most prevalent contraceptive methods in this country were female sterilization (44.3 percent) and injectables (30.9 percent), as shown in figure 1. Oral contraceptives, male condoms, and periodic abstinence lag behind with 7.6 percent, 6.3 percent, and 5.1 percent, respectively. Other methods, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and withdrawal made up 1 percent each of the method mix. Women who opted for female sterilization had an average of 3.2 live births, were 26.3 years old, and had been living in union for 7.6 years at the time of sterilization.

Adolescent pregnancy remained a major challenge. One in 12 adolescents has been pregnant by age 15, and four of 10 in the 15-to-19 years of age group.10 According to the 2008 FESAL, adolescent fertility was high (89 births per 1,000 women per year); one in three babies were born to teenage mothers in the country.

The total fertility rate fell by 60 percent in 30 years, from 6.3 children per woman in 1978 to 2.5 children per woman in 2008. Contraceptive prevalence among women married or in union aged 15 to 44 years increased from 21.6 percent in 1975 to 72.5 percent in 2008 for all methods, and from 19.6 percent to 66.1 percent for modern methods. El Salvador has one of the highest contraceptive prevalence rates (CPR) in Central America; Nicaragua and Costa Rica rank first, followed by El Salvador.