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Colombia - People

With an estimated population of 46,700,000 as of July 2015, Colombia is the third most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. Income inequality is among the worst in the world, and more than a third of the population lives below the poverty line.

At the outset of the twentieth century, Colombia’s population was only 4 million. By 1950, however, after growing by 2 percent annually in the 1940s, it had nearly tripled to 11 million. Between the late 1950s and the late 1960s, Colombia had one of the highest population growth rates not only in Latin America but in the world—more than 3 percent annually, peaking at 3.4 percent in the 1950s.

Since then it has had one of the sharpest declines. A contributing factor was a quiet government-funded contraception program. Colombia is in the midst of a demographic transition resulting from steady declines in its fertility, mortality, and population growth rates. The birth rate has fallen from more than 6 children per woman in the 1960s to just above replacement level today as a result of increased literacy, family planning services, and urbanization.

Colombia’s population is descended from three racial groups—Amerindians, blacks, and whites—that have mingled throughout the last 500 years of the country’s history. Estimates vary widely, but the 2005 census found that the Afro-Colombian population accounted for 10.5 percent of the national population (4.3 million people); the Amerindian population, for 3.4 percent (1.4 million people); and the gypsy population, for 0.01 percent (5,000 people).

The actual percentage of Colombians of primarily European ancestry may be closer to 20 percent, but many people may identify themselves as white when they actually belong in the mestizo category. In any case, more than half of Colombians are mestizo. Moreover, those recognized as white do not necessarily have direct Spanish lineage. Rather, their whiteness is attributed to their self-perception of being white.

Some demographers describe Colombia as one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the Western Hemisphere, with 85 different ethnic groups. Most Colombians identify themselves and others according to ancestry, physical appearance, and sociocultural status. Social relations reflect the importance attached to certain characteristics associated with a given racial group. Although these characteristics no longer accurately differentiate social categories, they still help determine rank in the social hierarchy.

Colombia officially acknowledges three ethnic minority groups: the Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and gypsy (Rom, or Romany) populations.

The Afro-Colombian population consists of blacks, mulattoes, and zambos (a term used since colonial times for individuals of mixed Amerindian and black ancestry). Afro-Colombians are entitled to all constitutional rights and protections, but they continue to face significant economic and social discrimination. According to the 2005 census, an estimated 74 percent of Afro-Colombians earned less than the minimum wage.

Descendants of indigenous people who survived the Spanish conquest live primarily in scattered groups in remote areas largely outside the national society, such as the higher elevations of the southern highlands, the forests north and west of the cordilleras, the arid Península de La Guajira, and the vast eastern plains and Amazonian jungles, which had only begun to be penetrated by other groups in the twentieth century. The Amerindian groups differ from the rest of the nation in major cultural aspects. Nevertheless, although some continue to speak indigenous languages (about 80 Amerindian languages survive), Spanish, introduced by missionaries, is the predominant language among all but the most isolated groups.

Anthropological studies and political interests relating to Amerindian issues have generated data about the ethnic groups that exist in Colombia. More than 80 identified ethnic groups or tribes remain, scattered throughout the departments and national territories. According to the Dallas, Texas–based SIL International (previously known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), in 2005 Colombia had 101 known indigenous languages that fell into 14 linguistic families; 80 were living languages, and 21 were extinct.

The Páez (also known as Nasa Yuwes) constitute the largest ethnic group, with about 123,000 people. Although routed, the Páez survived the Spanish conquest by retreating to their rugged mountain homeland in Cauca Department in the southwest of the country. The Wayuus (also known as Wayús or Guajiros) make up the next-largest group, with 73,000 people living in the semidesert of the Península de La Guajira in the country’s extreme north. The Páez form a patriarchal society, whereas the Wayuus have a matrilineal system that determines descendancy, inheritance, property, and residence. The 15,000-member Emberá group forms another important community, living in the humid jungle of the Golfo de Urabá region in Chocó Department in the west near Panama. These three communities account for 56 percent of Colombia’s Amerindian population.

Although all Amerindian peoples in Colombia have had some contact with outsiders, the degree and effect have varied considerably. Some tribes, such as the Makus, Chiricoas, Tunebos, and roughly 3,000 remaining members of the Yagua tribe in the Amazonia rainforest, have remained very primitive nomadic hunting and fishing groups. One of the more isolated and hostile Amerindian groups, the Motilóns, in the northeastern lowlands, have been known to greet missionary groups and oil company employees encroaching in their territory with poisoned arrows and darts. Yet other groups are settled farmers with well-developed handicraft industries, and some of the most successful tribes have developed effective methods of raising cattle. Nonetheless, it was long difficult for Amerindians to retain land that they traditionally held, especially in the highlands where the competition for cultivable land is keenest.

Colombia experiences significant legal and illegal economic emigration and refugee flows. Large-scale labor emigration dates to the 1960s; Venezuela and the United States continue to be the main host countries. Colombia is the largest source of Latin American refugees in Latin America, nearly 400,000 of whom live primarily in Venezuela and Ecuador. Forced displacement remains prevalent because of violence among guerrillas, paramilitary groups, and Colombian security forces. Afro-Colombian and indigenous populations are disproportionately affected. A leading NGO estimates that 5.2 million people have been displaced since 1985, while the Colombian Government estimates 3.6 million since 2000. These estimates may undercount actual numbers because not all internally displaced persons are registered. Historically, Colombia also has one of the world's highest levels of forced disappearances.

Marriage and home made up of father, mother and children are figures increasingly obsolete in the country. In light of the results of the World Family Map 2013, conducted in 45 countries and covered in official data of recent years, it is evident the social reality of Colombian families. The document, produced by the global organization Trends Child, Colombia (with data Profamilia and the Dane in this case) stands out as the country with the highest percentage of cohabiting or free unions: 39 percent of couples between 18 and 49 years old and lives in that way.

In the world, such unions are highly prevalent in Europe and Latin America. For example, about a quarter of Swedish and French living in consensual unions. In the region, after Colombia, followed by Argentina (27 percent) and Brazil (26 percent). Colombia is also the country where people are less likely to marry. Among those 18 to 49 years only 19 percent are married. That figure rises to 43 percent in Canada, 58 percent in Mexico and 67 percent in Nigeria.