The demographic characteristics of the population of

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

are known from censuses, with the first census undertaken in 1826 and the most recent in 2012. The

National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia The Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Bolivia or National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia is a branch of the Government of Bolivia which specifically collects factual data in the country of Bolivia in South America. The Institute compiles s ...

(INE) has performed this task since 1950. The population of Bolivia in 2012 reached 10 million for the first time in history. The population density is 9.13 inhabitants per square kilometer, and the overall life expectancy in Bolivia at birth is 68.2 years. The population has steadily risen from the late 1800s to the present time. The natural growth rate of the population is positive, which has been a continuing trend since the 1950s; in 2012, Bolivia's

birth rate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

continued to be higher than the death rate. Bolivia is in the third stage of

demographic transition In demography, demographic transition is a phenomenon and theory which refers to the historical shift from high birth rates and high death rates in societies with minimal technology, education (especially of women) and economic development, to l ...

. In terms of age structure, the population is dominated by the 15–64 segment. The median age of the population is 23.1, and the gender ratio of the total population is 0.99 males per female. Bolivia is inhabited mostly by

Mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

and

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

, while minorities include 37

indigenous groups Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

(0.3% average per group). Spanish,

Guarani language Guaraní (), specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guarani ( "the people's language"), is a South American language that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani family of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of P ...

s, as well as 34 other native languages are the official languages of Bolivia. Spanish is the most-spoken language (60.7%) within the population. The main religions of Bolivia are the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(81.8%),

Evangelicalism Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...

(11.5%), and

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

(2.6%). There is a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 91.2%. An estimated 7.6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on education. The average monthly household income was Bs.1,378 ($293) in 1994. In December 2013 the

unemployment rate Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...

was 3.2% of the working population. The average urbanization rate in Bolivia is 67%.

Population

The first true estimate of the population of Bolivia came in 1826, in which 997,427 inhabitants were estimated. This number was calculated from the 1796 census organized by

Francisco Gil de Taboada Francisco Gil de Taboada y Lemos (in full ''Francisco Gil de Taboada y de Lemos y Villa Marín'') (September 24, 1733 in Santa María de Soto Longo, Galicia, Spain – 1809 in Madrid) was a Spanish naval officer and colonial administrator in ...

, which consisted of several Bolivian cities. The first modern census was completed in 1831, and ten have been completed since then. The organizer of Bolivia's censuses has changed throughout the years—

Andrés de Santa Cruz Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana (; 30 November 1792 – 25 September 1865) was a Bolivian general and politician who served as interim president of Peru in 1827, the interim president of Peru from 1836 to 1838 and the sixth president of B ...

(1831), The Bolivian Statistical Office (1835, 1854, 1882), The Bolivian Statistical Commission (1845), The National Immigration Bureau and The Statistics and Geographic Propaganda (1900), and The Department of Statistics and Censuses (1950)—with the INE conducting the census since 1976. The national census is supposed to be conducted every ten years, however, the 2012 census was late because of "climatic factors and the financing." The 2012 census was conducted on 21 November 2012, in which 10,027,254 inhabitants were in the country. The estimated cost of the census was $50 million. With a population of 10.0 million in 2012, Bolivia ranks 87th in the world by population. Its population density is 9.13 inhabitants per square kilometer. The overall

life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, current age, and other demographic factors like sex. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth ...

in Bolivia is 65.4. The

total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...

is 2.87 children per mother. Since 1950, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

(WHO) estimates the birth rate exceeded the death rate of the country. The population of Bolivia has been increasing since 1900, and has only had a negative per annum growth rate twice in its history (1835 and 1882). Bolivia is in the third stage of

. There were 562,461 immigrants in Bolivia in 2012, with the most (40.5%) coming from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. In 2008, there were 48,809 marriages in Bolivia, and 5,887 divorces throughout the country in 2011.

Vital statistics

Births and deaths

Fertility and Births

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):

Structure of the population

Structure of the population (21 November 2012) (Census): Life expectancy in Bolivia

Life expectancy

Source: ''UN World Population Prospects''

Ethnic groups

Languages

The official

languages of Bolivia The languages of Bolivia include Bolivian Spanish, Spanish; several dozen indigenous languages, most prominently Aymara language, Aymara, Quechua language, Quechua, Chiquitano language, Chiquitano, and Eastern Bolivian Guaraní language, Guaraní ...

are

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

(60.7%),

(21.2%),

(14.6), and

Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guaraní language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * ...

(0.6%), plus another 33 native languages. Originally only Spanish, Aymara, and Quechua were the official languages until the 2009 Constitution was passed. According to the 2001 census, 60.7% of the population over six years old are able to speak Spanish and/or speaks it as a native language.

Religion

In a 2012 Gallup poll, 87% answered affirmatively when asked "Is religion important in your daily life?"

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

is the largest religion in Bolivia, with

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

being the largest denomination.

Education

The

in Bolivia is 94.98%.

Health

Healthcare expenditured comprised only 4.9% of the GDP. According to the 2013 ''

World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

'', Bolivia ranks 161st in

with an average age of 68.2 years. In 2009, the ''World Factbook'' estimated 12,000 people are living in Bolivia with

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

(0.2%) and less than 1,000 of that population died from it. In 2003, it was estimated by the

(WHO) that 31.9% of the adult population (12–64) were smokers. According to 2008 WHO data, 17.9% of the population is

obese Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

. In 2011, there were 3,255 healthcare institutions, of which 1,134 are considered "first class" (medical personnel and registered nurses) by the Bolivian Ministry of Health Management. The hospitals employed an estimated 10,000 medical doctors in 2001. In 2012, the causes of death in Bolivia were: # Diseases of the circulatory system 13.72% # Cancer 11.34% # External causes of morbidity and mortality 10.79% # Conditions originating in

prenatal development Prenatal development () includes the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal devel ...

10.19% #

Gastrointestinal disease Gastrointestinal diseases (abbrev. GI diseases or GI illnesses) refer to diseases involving the gastrointestinal tract, namely the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and rectum, and the accessory organs of digestion, the liver ...

10.18% #

Respiratory disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathology, pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in Breathing, air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the t ...

9.92% # Infectious and parasitic diseases 9.54% #

Endocrine The endocrine system is a messenger system comprising feedback loops of the hormones released by internal glands of an organism directly into the circulatory system, regulating distant target organs. In vertebrates, the hypothalamus is the neu ...

nutritional Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficien ...

and

metabolic diseases Inborn errors of metabolism form a large class of genetic diseases involving congenital disorders of enzyme activities. The majority are due to defects of single genes that code for enzymes that facilitate conversion of various substances ( substra ...

6.74% # Symptoms, signs, and abnormal clinical 6.23% # Other 11.34%

Economic indicators

Personal income, jobs, and unemployment

The average monthly income in 2016 was estimated in 4,319 Bs. This was a substantial increase from the average monthly income in 1994 of Bs.1,378 ($293). Since May 2019, the

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

in Bolivia is Bs.2,122 ($307) per month. The

in Bolivia in 2015 was 7.4%. There are an estimated 4.7 million workers in Bolivia. Of that population, 48% are considered to be employed in services, 32% are industrial workers (mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing, jewelry), and 32% are agricultural workers (soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; Brazil nuts; timber). In comparison with other countries in South America, Bolivia's median equivalent household income in terms of the

Purchasing Power Standard Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the measurement of prices in different countries that uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries' currencies. PPP is effectively the ratio of the price of a basket ...

stands at $5,000, which ranks last in South America.

Urbanization and housing

The 2012 census recorded a total of 3,158,691 households in Bolivia—an increase of 887,960 from 2001. In 2009, 75.4% of homes were classified as a house, hut, or ''pahuichi''; 3.3% were apartments; 21.1% were rented out homes; and 0.1% were

mobile homes A mobile home (also known as a house trailer, park home, trailer, or trailer home) is a prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to site (either by being towed or on a trailer). Us ...

. The

urbanization rate Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly the ...

of Bolivia is 67%.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Indigenous Peoples distribution map
- Bolivian