Demographics of Argentina
This article is about the demographic features of Argentina, including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population. In the , Argentina had a population of 36,260,130 inhabitants, and preliminary results from the census were of 40,117,096 inhabitants. Argentina ranks third in South America in total population and 33rd globally. The population density is 15 persons per square kilometer, well below the world average of 50 persons. The population growth rate in 2020 was estimated to be 0.35% annually, with a birth rate of 11.8 live births per 1,000 inhabitants and a mortality rate of  8.3 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. The proportion of people under 15, at 24.6%, is somewhat below the world average (28%), and the cohort of people 65 and older is relatively high, at 10.8%. The percentage of senior citizens in Argentina has long been second only to Uruguay in Latin America and well above the world average, which is currently 7%. The median age is approximately 30 years and life expectancy at birth is of 76 years. According to an official cultural consumption survey conducted in 2006, 42.3% of Argentines speak English (though only 15.4% of those claimed to have a  high level of English comprehension), 8.3% speak Portuguese and 6.9% speak Italian. Cities. Argentina is highly urbanized, with the ten largest metropolitan areas accounting for half of the population, and fewer than one in ten living in rural areas. About 3 million people live in Buenos Aires proper, and the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area totals around 13 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world. The metropolitan areas of Córdoba and Rosario have around 1.3 million inhabitants each, and six other cities (Mendoza, Tucumán, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Salta and Santa Fe) have at  least half a million people each. The population is unequally distributed amongst the provinces, with about 60% living in the Pampa region (21% of the total area), including 15 million people in Buenos Aires Province, and 3 million each in Córdoba Province, Santa Fe Province and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Seven other provinces each have about one million people: Mendoza, Tucumán, Entre Ríos, Salta, Chaco, Corrientes and Misiones. Tucumán is the most densely populated (with 60 inhabitants/km, the only Argentine province more densely populated than the world average), while the southern province of Santa Cruz has less  than 1 inhabitant/km. In the mid-19th century, a large wave of immigration started to arrive to Argentina due to new Constitutional policies that encouraged immigration, and issues in the countries the immigrants came from such as wars, poverty, hunger, famines, pursuit of a better life, among other reasons. The main immigration sources were from Europe, the countries from the Near and Middle East, Russia and Japan. In fact, the immigration torrent was so strong that Argentina eventually received the second-largest number of immigrants in the world, second only to the US and ahead of such immigration receptor countries  such as Canada, Brazil, Australia, etc. Most of these European immigrants settled in the cities which offered jobs, education and other opportunities enabling them to enter the middle class. Many also settled in the growing small towns along the expanding railway system and since the 1930s many rural workers have moved to the big cities. Urban areas reflect the influence of European immigration, and most of the larger ones feature boulevards and diagonal avenues inspired by the redevelopment of Paris. Argentine cities were originally built in a colonial Spanish grid style, centered on a plaza overlooked by a cathedral and  important government buildings. Many still retain this general layout, known as a "damero", meaning checkerboard, since it is based on a pattern of square blocks. The city of La Plata, designed at the end of the 19th century by Pedro Benoit, combines the checkerboard layout with added diagonal avenues at fixed intervals, and was the first in South America with electric street lighting. Historical census data. Sources: Pantelides and National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina Vital statistics. The table below gives an overview of the number of birth and deaths in Argentina during the past century. Several sources  were combined to compile the table. The number of births in 2010 (756,176) was the highest number ever recorded. The number of deaths in 2010 also was the highest ever record. However, as the population of Argentina showed a sixfold increase during the past century, the birth and death rates in 2010 (18.5 and 7.9, respectively) were rather low in a historical perspective. Birth rates declined sharply after 2015. Structure of the population. According to the total population was in , compared to only 17,150,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 24.9%, 64.5 % was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 10.6% was 65 years or older. Structure of the population (1 July 2010) (Estimates- Data refer to projections based on 2001 Population Census): Structure of the population (01.07.2013) (Estimates) : UN estimates. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates of vital statistics of Argentina. Other demographics statistics. Argentina's population continues to grow but at a slower rate because of its steadily declining birth rate. Argentina's fertility decline began earlier than in the rest of Latin America, occurring most rapidly between the early 20th century and the  1950s and then becoming more gradual. Life expectancy has been improving, most notably among the young and the poor. Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review. Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated. European (mostly Spanish and Italian descent) and mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian ancestry) 97.2% Amerindian 2.4% African 0.4% Spanish (official), Italian, English, German, French, indigenous (Mapudungun, Quechua) Roman Catholicism 66%, Protestantism 10%, No Religion 21%, Other 3% definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2016 est.) Ethnic groups. Indigenous peoples. According to the data of INDEC's Complementary Survey of  Indigenous Peoples (ECPI) 2004–2005, 600,000 officially recognized indigenous persons (about 1.4% of the total population) reside in Argentina. The most numerous of these communities are the Mapuches, who live mostly in the south, the Kollas and Wichís, from the northwest, and the Guaranis and Qom, who live mostly in the northeast. In the census of 2010, 955,032 people self recognized as indigenous or descendants of indigenous peoples, thus representing 2.4% of the national population. This is without prejudice that more than half of the population has at least one indigenous ancestor, although in most cases family memory lost that origin . Afro-Argentines. Since 2013, November 8 has been celebrated as the National Day of Afro-Argentines and African Culture. The date was chosen to commemorate the recorded date for the death of María Remedios del Valle, a "rabona" and guerrilla fighter, who served with the Army of the North in the war of Independence. The black population in Argentina declined since the middle 19th century from 15% of the total population in 1857 (Blacks and Mulatto people), to 1% at present (mainly mulattoes and immigrants from Cape Verde). Afro-Argentines were up to a third of the population during colonial  times, most of them slaves brought from Africa to work for the criollos. The 1813 Assembly abolished slavery and led to the Freedom of Wombs Law of 1813, which automatically freed slaves' children at birth. Many Afro-Argentines contributed to the independence of Argentina such as María Remedios del Valle who is known as "La Madre de la Patria" (mother of the fatherland in English) and Sgt. Juan Bautista Cabral. Also there is a debate, among the historians, as to whether or not Bernardino Rivadavia, the first president of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (Present Argentina ) had African ancestors. Immigration to Argentina. European settlement. As with other areas of new settlement such as Canada, Australia, the United States, Brazil, and New Zealand, Argentina is considered a country of immigrants. When it is considered that Argentina was second only to the United States (27 million of immigrants) in the number of immigrants received, even ahead of such other areas of new settlement like Canada, Brazil and Australia; and that the country was scarcely populated following its independence, the impact of the immigration to Argentina becomes evident. In the last national census, based on self-identification, 952,032 Argentines  (2.4% of the population) declared to be Amerindians. Most of the 6.2 million European immigrants arriving between 1850 and 1950, regardless of origin, settled in several regions of the country. Due to this large-scale European immigration, Argentina's population more than doubled. The majority of these European immigrants came from Italy, Spain, Germany, England, France, Switzerland, Wales, Scotland, Poland, Albania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Armenia, Greece, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. Italian population in Argentina arrived mainly from the northern Italian regions  varying between Piedmont, Veneto and Lombardy, later from Campania and Calabria; Many Argentines have the gentilic of an Italian city, place, street or occupation of the immigrant as their last names. Spanish immigrants were mainly Galicians and Basques. Thousands of immigrants also came from France (notably Béarn and the Northern Basque Country), Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Portugal, Finland, Russia and the United Kingdom. The Welsh settlement in Patagonia, known as "Y Wladfa", began in 1865; mainly along the coast of Chubut Province. In addition to the main colony in Chubut, a smaller colony was set up in Santa  Fe and another group settled at Coronel Suárez, southern Buenos Aires Province. Of the 50,000 Patagonians of Welsh descent, about 5,000 are Welsh speakers. The community is centered on the cities of Gaiman, Trelew and Trevelin. Recent immigrants. According to the INDEC 1,531,940 of the Argentine resident population in 2001 were born outside Argentina, representing 4.22% of the total Argentine resident population. In 2010, 1,805,957 of the Argentine resident population were born outside Argentina, representing 4.50% of the total Argentine resident population. Illegal immigration has been a recent factor in Argentine demographics. Most illegal immigrants come from Bolivia and Paraguay , countries which border Argentina to the north. Smaller numbers arrive from Peru and Ecuador. The Argentine government estimates that 750,000 inhabitants lack official documents and has launched a program called "Patria Grande" ("Greater Homeland") to encourage illegal immigrants to regularize their status; so far over 670,000 applications have been processed under the program. Languages. The official language of Argentina is Spanish, and it is spoken by practically the entire population in several different accents. The most common variation of Spanish in Argentina is the Rioplatense Spanish (), and it is so named because it evolved in the central areas around the  Río de la Plata basin. Its distinctive feature is widespread voseo, the use of the pronoun "vos" instead of "tú" for the second person singular. Non-indigenous minority languages. Many Argentines also speak other European languages (Italian, German, Portuguese, French, Welsh, Swedish and Croatian, as examples) due to the vast number of immigrants from Europe that came to Argentina. 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  most jobs, so most middle-class children and teenagers now speak, read and/or understand it with various degrees of proficiency. According to an official cultural consumption survey conducted in 2006, 42.3% of Argentines claim to speak some English (though only 15.4% of those claimed to have a high level of English comprehension). There are sources of around one million Levantine Arabic speakers in Argentina, as a result of immigration from the Middle East, mostly from Syria and Lebanon. Standard German is spoken by around 500,000 Argentines of German ancestry, though the number may be as high as 3,800,000 according to  some sources. German is the third or fourth most spoken language in Argentina. There is a prosperous community of Argentine Welsh-speakers of approximately 25,000 in the province of Chubut, in the Patagonia region, who descend from 19th century immigrants. Religion. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but until 1994 the President and Vice President had to be Catholic. The society, culture, and politics of Argentina are deeply imbued with Roman Catholicism. Estimates for the number of Roman Catholics vary from 70% of the population, to as much as 90%. The CIA Factbook lists 92% of the country is Catholic , but only 20% are practicing regularly or weekly at a church service. The Jewish population is about 300,000 (around 0.75% of the population), the community numbered about 400,000 after World War II, but the appeal of Israel and economic and cultural pressures at home led many to leave; recent instability in Israel has resulted in a modest reversal of the trend since 2003. Muslim Argentines number about 500,000–600,000, or approximately 1.5% of the population; 93% of them are Sunni. Buenos Aires is home to one of the largest mosques in Latin America. A study from 2010 found that approximately 11 % of Argentines are non-religious, including those who believe in God, though not religion, agnostics (4%) and atheists (5%). Overall, 24% attended religious services regularly. Protestants were the only group in which a majority regularly attended services.