Paraguay's population is distributed unevenly through the country. The vast majority of the people live in the eastern region, most within 160 kilometres (99 mi) of Asunción, the capital and largest city, which borders on Argentina to the south and west. The Gran Chaco in the north-west, which accounts for about 60% of Paraguayan territory, is home to less than 4% of the population.
Ethnically, culturally, and socially, Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations in South America. About 75% of the people are mestizo (mixed Spanish and Guaraní Native American descent), 20% are Whites, and the rest are small minorities of Indigenous or Afro Paraguayan origin.[4] Little trace is left of the original Guaraní culture except the language, which is spoken by 90% of the population. About 75% of all Paraguayans also speak Spanish. Guaraní and Spanish are official languages.
Paraguay has a history of foreign settlement, especially in the 20th century: Germans (the majority are Mennonites) with long-time Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner (President, 1954–1989) himself of German ancestry; Italians (around 40% of the total Paraguayan population is of full or partial Italian descent);[5][6][7] Japanese with Okinawans; Koreans; Chinese; Arabs, Ukrainians; Poles; Southern Europeans; Jews; Brazilians; and Argentines are among those who have settled in Paraguay. There are also an estimated 234,000 Afro-Paraguayans, or 4% of the population.[8]
European and Middle Eastern immigrants began making their way to Paraguay in the decades following the Paraguayan War of 1864–1870 (from 1870 onward). Only 28,000 men and 200,000 women had survived the war, the reason why Paraguay had since then a high rate of illegitimate births. The government pursued a pro-immigration policy in an effort to increase population. Government records indicated that approximately 12,000 immigrants entered the port of Asunción between 1882 and 1907, of whom almost 9,000 came from Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. Migrants also arrived from neighboring Spanish American countries, especially Argentina. The immigrant ethnic groups kept their cultures and languages to some extent, especially Brazilians – known as "Brasiguayos".[9][10]
Official records gave an imprecise sense of the number of Brazilians who came to the country. According to the 1982 census, 99,000 Brazilians resided in Paraguay. Most[quantify] analysts discounted this figure, however, and contended that between 300,000 and 350,000 Brazilians lived in the eastern border region.
Analysts also rejected government figures on the number of immigrants from South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The 1982 census reported that there were 2,700 Koreans in Paraguay, along with another 1,100 non-Japanese or non-Korean Asian immigrants. Virtually all Koreans and Chinese lived in Ciudad del Este or Asunción and played a major role in the importation and sale of electronic goods manufactured in Asia.
Paraguay became the site of radical and progressive colonies inspired by political thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A group of radical socialist Australians in the 1890s voluntarily went to create a failed master-planned community, known as Nueva (New) Australia (1893 -1897); and Elisabeth Nietzsche, a German racial ideologist and sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche came to Paraguay in her attempt to build a colony, Nueva Germania (Neues Deutschland) (founded 1886) devoted to a hypothetical pure white"Nordic" society.
A 2022 census found that Paraguay's population shrank as a production of migration and having smaller families, as well as better data integrity, resulting in a loss of over one million.[11]
Demographics of Paraguay, Data of Our World in Data, year 2022; Number of inhabitants in thousands.Paraguay population density (people per km2)
According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects[14][15] the total population was 6,703,799 in 2021, compared to only 1,473,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 33.5%, 61.4% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 5.1% was 65 years or older
.[16]
Year
Total population ( × 1000)
Population percentage in age bracket
0–14
15–64
65+
1950
1 473
47.0%
50.1%
2.9%
1955
1 674
47.5%
49.5%
3.0%
1960
1 906
47.8%
49.0%
3.2%
1965
2 176
47.5%
49.2%
3.3%
1970
2 483
46.1%
50.4%
3.5%
1975
2 802
44.1%
52.3%
3.6%
1980
3 195
42.5%
53.8%
3.8%
1985
3 698
41.6%
54.5%
3.9%
1990
4 244
41.4%
54.6%
4.0%
1995
4 795
40.3%
55.4%
4.3%
2000
5 323
38.5%
57.2%
4.4%
2005
5 824
35.5%
59.8%
4.7%
2010
6 248
32.9%
61.8%
5.2%
2015
6 689
30.4%
63.7%
5.9%
2020
7 133
28.9%
64.3%
6.8%
Structure of the population
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2013) (Projections based on the 2002 Population Census.):[17]
Age Group
Male
Female
Total
%
Total
3 426 508
3 356 867
6 783 374
100
0–4
377 989
363 561
741 550
10.93
5–9
372 142
358 751
730 893
10.77
10–14
364 020
351 350
715 369
10.55
15–19
351 038
339 645
690 683
10.18
20–24
331 748
322 813
654 561
9.65
25–29
303 291
297 128
600 419
8.85
30–34
257 335
252 770
510 104
7.52
35–39
203 351
200 858
404 209
5.96
40–44
173 976
173 202
347 177
5.12
45–49
160 044
158 383
318 427
4.69
50–54
140 818
137 891
278 709
4.11
55–59
120 438
116 493
236 931
3.49
60–64
95 424
92 423
187 848
2.77
65–69
67 623
67 777
135 401
2.00
70–74
47 778
50 653
98 431
1.45
75–79
31 694
36 085
67 779
1.00
80+
27 800
37 082
64 882
0.96
Age group
Male
Female
Total
Percent
0–14
1 114 151
1 073 662
2 187 813
32.25
15–64
2 312 357
2 091 608
4 403 965
64.92
65+
174 895
191 597
366 492
5.40
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2021) (Estimates or projections considering also the results of the 2012 Population Census.):[18]
Age Group
Male
Female
Total
%
Total
3 702 281
3 650 758
7 353 038
100
0–4
360 793
346 324
707 118
9.62
5–9
357 301
343 724
701 025
9.53
10–14
352 757
340 126
692 883
9.42
15–19
344 522
332 510
677 032
9.21
20–24
334 496
322 993
657 489
8.94
25–29
318 925
309 559
628 484
8.55
30–34
300 116
293 132
593 247
8.07
35–39
266 102
262 734
528 836
7.19
40–44
214 813
217 042
431 855
5.87
45–49
185 967
188 348
374 315
5.09
50–54
164 693
166 184
330 877
4.50
55–59
141 237
142 195
283 432
3.85
60–64
120 322
119 145
239 467
3.26
65–69
94 450
94 556
189 006
2.57
70–74
63 855
66 647
130 502
1.77
75–79
41 070
46 120
87 191
1.19
80+
40 863
59 417
100 280
1.36
Age group
Male
Female
Total
Percent
0–14
1 070 851
1 030 174
2 101 025
28.57
15–64
2 391 192
2 353 844
4 745 036
64.53
65+
240 238
266 740
506 978
6.89
Vital statistics
Registration of vital events in Paraguay are not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
[16]
Period
per year
per 1000
total fertility rate (number of children per woman)
infant mortality rate per 1000 births
Life expectancy
live births
deaths
natural change
crude birth rate
crude death rate
natural change
total
males
females
1950–1955
70,000
14,000
56,000
44.3
8.9
35.4
6.50
73
62.6
60.5
64.6
1955–1960
76,000
15,000
61,000
42.7
8.6
34.1
6.50
70
63.2
61.1
65.1
1960–1965
84,000
16,000
68,000
41.3
8.0
33.3
6.45
62
64.3
62.3
66.3
1965–1970
92,000
18,000
74,000
39.5
7.6
31.8
6.15
59
65.0
63.0
66.9
1970–1975
94,000
19,000
75,000
35.6
7.1
28.6
5.35
53
65.9
63.7
68.0
1975–1980
108,000
21,000
87,000
36.1
6.9
29.2
5.20
51
66.5
64.3
68.7
1980–1985
129,000
24,000
105,000
37.3
6.8
30.4
5.20
49
67.0
64.9
69.3
1985–1990
139,000
26,000
113,000
34.9
6.6
28.3
4.77
47
67.6
65.4
69.9
1990–1995
145,000
28,000
117,000
32.0
6.2
25.8
4.31
43
68.5
66.3
70.8
1995–2000
148,000
30,000
118,000
29.3
5.9
23.3
3.88
39
69.4
67.2
71.7
2000–2005
151,000
32,000
119,000
25.1
5.4
19.7
3.24
36
70.7
68.7
72.9
2005–2010
153,000
34,000
119,000
23.4
5.4
18.0
2.89
32
71.7
69.7
73.9
2010–2015
161,000
38,000
123,000
21.7
5.4
16.3
2.60
30
72.2
70.0
74.5
2015–2020
165,000
43,000
122,000
20.7
5.5
15.2
2.45
28
72.7
70.4
75.1
2020–2025
19.4
5.7
13.7
1.95
2025–2030
18.0
6.0
12.0
1.84
Registered births and deaths
Note that the numbers of births and deaths below are considered incomplete by the UN and by year of registration rather than by year of occurrence.
The Paraguay's predominant ancestry is European, which represents a large part of the population, mainly descendants of Spaniards and Italians (who have contributed to repopulating the country after the Triple Alliance War) but there are also a large number of people of German ancestry, due to the German Mennonites (majority in the western part of the territory). There are 17 Mennonite colonies, only in the Paraguayan Chaco. It is one of the Latin American countries with the least indigenous traits (due to the fact that the traditional Paraguayan population; the Spanish mixture of Guaraní, had been annihilated by the war in 1870, which is why the country had to repopulate by resorting to immigration, especially the Italian in that country.) Taking into account the high fertility, Paraguay registers a majority young population structure. Of every ten people, four are under the age of 15 (2,339,000) and the population aged 15 to 29 represents a quarter of the total population. According to the Census (ECLAC, 1998), the population of indigenous nature that year was 29,482 people, that is, about 0.7% of the national population. There is a low percentage of people with distinctively Amerindian features and the absence of people with African features. The majority of the population is made up of mestizos who are descendants of the original population, the Guarani, and Europeans.
^Ritchie, Hannah; Mathieu, Edouard; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Hasell, Joe; MacDonald, Bobbie; Beltekian, Diana; Roser, Max (5 March 2020). "Excess mortality using raw death counts". Our World in Data. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
