Colombia PopulationThe Colombia Population keeps on growing even after millions of people leaving the country due to four decades of civil war between the government and guerrilla groups. The country is the third most populous one in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico and perhaps, the most urbanized Latin American nation. General StatisticsColombia shows a beautiful diversity in culture and ethnicity thanks to its past all over its 33 departments that total a geographic area of 1,141,748 km2. The total population was estimated at 45,405,293 in July 2010, growing at a rate of 1.184% with a median age of 27.6 years and a life expectancy of 74.31 years.CultureJust like in any other Latin American country, religion is very strong among the Population as 90% of it is Roman Catholic while the other 10% is either Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Mormon, Jewish or Muslim.Colombia’s official language is Spanish and its population is the 2nd largest of Spanish speakers in the world after Mexico. German, French, English, Italian and Portuguese are also spoken by small communities in urban areas and, there are 65 indigenous languages registered along with two Creole languages: one in San Basilio de Palenque and one in San Andres. Colombia’s cuisine, music and social life owe their popularity and variety thanks to the diverse cultures that have been mixed together for many decades. EthnicityThe current demographics of the population are a combination of indigenous Amerindians, European immigrants and African slaves which have intermingled throughout history. Today, less than 1% of the population can be identified as indigenous based on language and customs thanks to this multi-cultural blend.Spanish colonists were the first immigrants from Europe and blended with the Amerindians giving birth to the Mestizo population which, sometimes ranges up to 65-70% of the population on yearly censuses. In modern history, Europeans have immigrated to Colombia during WWII and the Cold War and, along immigrants from North America they come and settle in urban areas and coasts of Colombia once they retire. 20% of the population belongs to the white ethnic group. The Africans immigrated as slaves in between the16thand the 19th centuries. Rounding up the statistics, 14% of the population belongs to the Mulatto group, 4% belong to the Afro-Colombian group, 3% to the Zambo group and, as mentioned before, Amerindians represent 1% of the entire Colombia population. MigrationDue to the current armed conflict between the Government of Colombia and the FARC guerrillas, many estimate that the total of internally displaced persons could be as high as 2 to 3 million. Most of these people you won’t find living in camps, but rather dispersed throughout urban areas.Other portions of the Colombia population have, in recent years left the country for numerous reasons and have headed to neighbor countries like Argentina, Brazil, Panama, Ecuador and others. United States has seen high immigration rates from Colombia as well as Canada and Europe.
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