Demographics of Argentina

Demographics of Argentina
Population of Argentina, 1961–2010
Population	43,847,430[1]
Growth rate	1.036% (2010 est.)[2]
Birth rate	17.75 births/1,000 population (2010 est.)
Death rate	7.39 deaths/1,000 population (July 2010 est.)
Life expectancy	77.14 years
• male	73.9 years
• female	80.54 years (2012 est.)
Fertility rate	2.29 children born/woman (2012 est.)
Infant mortality rate	10.52 deaths/1,000 live births
Net migration rate	0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2012 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	25.2% (male 5,450,679/ female 5,200,704)
15–64 years	63.6% (male 13,400,997/ female 13,440,948)
65 and over	11.1% (male 1,940,810/ female 2,758,356) (2012 est.)
Sex ratio
Total	0.97 male(s)/female (2011 est.)
At birth	1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15	1.05 male(s)/female
15–64 years	1 male(s)/female
65 and over	0.7 male(s)/female
Nationality
Nationality	Argentine
Language
Official	Spanish language
Spoken	English, Italian, German, Welsh, Yiddish, Portuguese, Guarani, Quechua, Mapudungun and many others are also spoken varying by region

This article is about the demographic features of Argentina, including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population.

In the 2001 census [INDEC], Argentina had a population of 36,260,130 inhabitants, and preliminary results from the 2010 census [INDEC] census were of 40,091,359 inhabitants.^[3][4] 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 2008 was estimated to be 0.92% annually, with a birth rate of 16.32 live births per 1,000 inhabitants and a mortality rate of 7.54 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%.

Argentina's population has long had one of Latin America's lowest birth rates and population growth rates (recently, about 1% a year) and it enjoys a comparatively low infant mortality rate; 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^[5] and 6.9% speak Italian.^[6]

Cities[edit]

Argentina is highly urbanized,^[2] 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;^[9] the metropolitan areas of Córdoba and Rosario have around 1.3 million inhabitants each,^[9] and six other cities (Mendoza, Tucumán, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Salta and Santa Fe)^[9][10] 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/km², the only Argentine province more densely populated than the world average), while the southern province of Santa Cruz has less than 1 inhabitant/km².

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.^[11][12]

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.^[13] 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 illumination.^[14]

Largest cities[edit]

v t e Largest cities or towns in Argentina (2015 INDEC metro area estimate)[15]
	Rank	Name	Province	Pop.	Rank	Name	Province	Pop.
Buenos Aires Córdoba	1	Buenos Aires	(Autonomous city)	13,834,000	11	Resistencia	Chaco	409,000	Rosario Mendoza
	2	Córdoba	Córdoba	1,519,000	12	Santiago del Estero	Santiago del Estero	406,000
	3	Rosario	Santa Fe	1,429,000	13	Corrientes	Corrientes	383,000
	4	Mendoza	Mendoza	1,082,000	14	Posadas	Misiones	355,000
	5	Tucumán	Tucumán	868,000	15	San Salvador de Jujuy	Jujuy	338,000
	6	La Plata	Buenos Aires	836,000	16	Neuquén	Neuquén	309,000
	7	Mar del Plata	Buenos Aires	633,000	17	Bahía Blanca	Buenos Aires	307,000
	8	Salta	Salta	625,000	18	Paraná	Entre Ríos	274,000
	9	Santa Fe	Santa Fe	530,000	19	Formosa	Formosa	258,000
	10	San Juan	San Juan	513,000	20	San Luis	San Luis	218,000

Provinces and districts[edit]

Flag	Province/District	Capital	Official Language	Population (2010)[16]	Rank	Area (km2)	Rank	Density (/km2)[16]	Rank
	Buenos Aires City	–		2,891,082	4	203	24	14,241.8	1
	Buenos Aires Province	La Plata		15,594,428	1	307,571	1	50.7	3
	Catamarca Province	San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca		367,820	20	102,602	11	3.6	20
	Chaco Province	Resistencia		1,053,466	10	99,633	12	10.6	11
	Chubut Province	Rawson	Spanish, Welsh	506,668	18	224,686	3	2.3	22
	Córdoba Province	Córdoba		3,304,825	2	165,321	5	20.0	6
	Corrientes Province	Corrientes	Spanish, Guaraní	993,338	11	88,199	16	11.3	10
	Entre Ríos Province	Paraná		1,236,300	7	78,781	17	15.7	7
	Formosa Province	Formosa		527,895	17	72,066	19	7.3	14
	Jujuy Province	San Salvador de Jujuy		672,260	14	53,219	20	12.6	8
	La Pampa Province	Santa Rosa		316,940	22	143,440	8	2.2	23
	La Rioja Province	La Rioja		331,847	21	89,680	14	3.7	19
	Mendoza Province	Mendoza		1,741,610	5	148,827	7	11.7	9
	Misiones Province	Posadas		1,097,829	9	29,801	21	36.8	4
	Neuquén Province	Neuquén		550,334	16	94,078	13	5.8	17
	Río Negro Province	Viedma		633,374	15	203,013	4	3.1	21
	Salta Province	Salta		1,215,207	8	155,488	6	7.8	12
	San Juan Province	San Juan		680,427	13	89,651	15	7.6	13
	San Luis Province	San Luis		431,588	19	76,748	18	5.6	18
	Santa Cruz Province	Río Gallegos		272,524	23	243,943	2	1.1	24
	Santa Fe Province	Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz		3,200,736	3	133,007	10	24.1	5
	Santiago del Estero Province	Santiago del Estero		896,461	12	136,351	9	6.6	15
	Tierra del Fuego Province	Ushuaia		126,190	24	21,263a	23	5.8a	16
	Tucumán Province	San Miguel de Tucumán		1,448,200	6	22,524	22	64.3	2

^a Not including claims to the Falkland Islands and the Argentine Antarctica.

Historical total fertility rates and crude birth rates[edit]

Sources: Pantelides and National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina^[8]

Vital statistics[edit]

The table below gives an overview of the number of birth and deaths in Argentina during the past century. Several sources were combined to construct the table;^[17][18][19] 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 (18.7 and 7.9, respectively) were rather low in a historical perspective.

Structure of the population[edit]

According to the 2017 revision of the World Population Prospects^[1] the total population was 43,847,430 in 2016, 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 .^[22]

Structure of the population (01.07.2010 ) (Estimates- Data refer to projections based on 2001 Population Census):^[23]

Structure of the population (01.07.2013) (Estimates) :

UN estimates[edit]

The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates of vital statistics of Argentina. ^[22]

Other demographics statistics[edit]

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, Argentina received more than 6.6 million immigrants, second only to the United States, which helped the country's population double every 20 years.^[24]

Most Argentines are descended from several European ethnic groups, with more than 55% having Italian origins; the second-most common ethnic origin is Spanish. About 17% have French origins, and about 8% are descended from German immigrants. Argentina today has a large Arab population, most of whom are from Syria and Lebanon.There are also about 180,000 Asian people, mostly of Chinese and Korean origins.^[24]

The Argentine government estimates there are 750,000 residents without official documents, many of whom immigrated from Paraguay, Peru, and Bolivia.^[24]

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.^[25]

Life expectancy has been improving, most notably among the young and the poor.^[25]

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review.^[24]

• One birth every 42 seconds
• One death every 2 minutes
• One net migrant every 111 minutes
• Net gain of one person every 1 minutes

Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.^[25]

Population

44,293,293 (July 2017 est.)

Ethnic groups

European (mostly Spanish and Italian descent) and mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian ancestry) 97.2%, Amerindian 2.4%, African 0.4% (2010 est.)

Age structure

Population pyramid of Argentina in 2017

0-14 years: 24.44% (male 5,629,345 /female 5,293,680)

15-24 years: 15.2% (male 3,476,344 /female 3,317,151)

25-54 years: 39.46% (male 8,808,591 /female 8,826,379)

55-64 years: 9.12%' (male 1,977,421 /female 2,096,665)

65 years and over: 11.79% (male 2,216,487 /female 3,052,135) (2018 est.)

0-14 years: 24.59% (male 5,612,766/female 5,278,857)

15-24 years: 15.28% (male 3,460,276/female 3,307,227)

25-54 years: 39.38% (male 8,707,818/female 8,733,370)

55-64 years: 9.13% (male 1,963,923/female 2,081,796)

65 years and over: 11.62% (male 2,159,811/female 2,987,449) (2017 est.)

Median age

total: 31.9 years. Country comparison to the world: 107th

male: 30.7 years

female: 33.1 years (2018 est.)

total: 31.7 years

male: 30.5 years

female: 32.9 years (2017 est.)

Birth rate

16.5 births/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 109th

16.7 births/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Death rate

7.5 deaths/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 108th

Total fertility rate

2.25 children born/woman (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 92nd

2.26 children born/woman (2017 est.)

Net migration rate

-0.1 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 101st

Population growth rate

0.89% (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 121st

0.91% (2017 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 77.3 years. Country comparison to the world: 74th

male: 74.2 years

female: 80.6 years (2017 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 9.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2018 est.)

male: 10.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2018 est.)

female: 8.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2018 est.)

Languages

Spanish (official), Italian, English, German, French, indigenous (Mapudungun, Quechua)

Religions

Nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%

Population distribution

One-third of the population lives in Buenos Aires; pockets of agglomeration occur throughout the northern and central parts of the country; Patagonia to the south remains sparsely populated

Dependency ratios

total dependency ratio: 56.5

youth dependency ratio: 39.4

elderly dependency ratio: 17.1

potential support ratio: 5.8 (2015 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 91.9% of total population (2018)

rate of urbanization: 1.07% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2016 est.)

total population: 99.1%

male: 99.1%

female: 99.1% (2016 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 18 years

male: 16 years

female: 19 years (2016)

Unemployment, youth ages 15–24

total: 18.3%. Country comparison to the world: 71st

male: 15.6%

female: 22.8% (2014 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female

0-14 years: 1.06 male(s)/female

15-24 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

25-54 years: 1 male(s)/female

55-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female

total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

Ethnic groups[edit]

Indigenous peoples[edit]

Distribution of the Indigenous Peoples in Argentina

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.^[28] 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.

Immigration to Argentina[edit]

European settlement[edit]

As with other areas of new settlement such as Canada, Australia, the United States, Brazil, New Zealand, The United Arab Emirates and Singapore, Argentina is considered a country of immigrants;^[29] 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;^[11][12] 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^[28] 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.

Immigrant population in Argentina (1869–1991)

The majority of these European immigrants came from Italy, Spain, Germany, 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;^[30] Many Argentines have the gentilic of an Italian city, place, street or occupation of the immigrant as last name, many of them were not necessarily born Italians, but once they did the roles of immigration in Italy the name usually changed. Spanish immigrants were mainly Galicians and Basques.^[31][32] 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;^[33] 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.^[34] Of the 50,000 Patagonians of Welsh descent, about 5,000 are Welsh speakers;^[35] the community is centered on the cities of Gaiman, Trelew and Trevelin.^[36]

Recent immigrants[edit]

Foreign born residents in Argentina by country of birth.^[37]

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.^[38][39] In 2010, 1,805,957 of the Argentine resident population were born outside Argentina, representing 4.50% of the total Argentine resident population.^{[38][39][40][41]}

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")^[42] to encourage illegal immigrants to regularize their status; so far over 670,000 applications have been processed under the program.^[43]

Ethnic Map of Argentina and the Southern Cone • Light Blue: European Ancestors • Light Red: Mestizos • Dark Red: Amerindians • Green: African Ancestors • Yellow: Others

Rank (2010)	Country of birth	census 2010	census 2001	census 1990
1	Paraguay	550,713	325,046	254,115
2	Bolivia	345,272	233,464	145,670
3	Chile	191,147	212,429	247,987
4	Colombia	177,000	50,250	15,939
4	Peru	157,514	88,260	15,939
5	Italy	147,499	216,718	356,923
6	Uruguay	116,592	117,564	135,406
7	Spain	94,030	134,417	244,212
8	Brazil	41,330	34,712	33,966
9	China	8,929	4,184	2,297
10	Germany	8,416	10,362	15,451
11	South Korea	7,321	8,290	8,371
12	France	6,995	6,578	6,309
13	Japan	4,036	4,753	5,674
14	Taiwan	2,875	3,511	1,870
15	Syria	1,337	2,350	N/D
16	Lebanon	933	1,619	3,171
	Other countries	121,018	127,683	150,849
TOTAL		1,805,957	1,531,940	1,628,210

Languages[edit]

The official language of Argentina is Spanish, and it is spoken by practically the entire population in several different accents.^{[citation needed]} The most common variation of Spanish in Argentina is the River Plate Spanish (Spanish: Castellano Rioplatense), 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[edit]

Many Argentines also speak other European languages (Italian, Portuguese, French, Welsh, German, Swedish and Croatian, as examples) due to the vast number of immigrants from Europe that came to Argentina.^[2]

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).^[5]

Standard German is spoken by around 500,000^[44][45] Argentines of German ancestry, though the number may be as high as 3,800,000 according to some sources.^[46] German is the third or fourth most spoken language in Argentina.

There are sources of around one million Levantine Arabic speakers in Argentina,^[44] as a result of immigration from the Middle East, mostly from Syria and Lebanon.

There is a prosperous community of Argentine Welsh-speakers of approximately 25,000^[47] in the province of Chubut, in the Patagonia region, who descend from 19th century immigrants.

Religion[edit]

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The 17th century Cathedral of Córdoba

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,^[48] to as much as 90%;^[49] the CIA Factbook lists 92% of the country is Catholic, but only 20% are practicing regularly or weekly at a church service.^[2] 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.^[49][50] Muslim Argentines number about 500,000–600,000, or approximately 1.5% of the population; 93% of them are Sunni.^[49] Buenos Aires is home to one of the largest mosques in Latin America. A recent study 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.^[51]

Gallery[edit]

• 

  Population distribution by province.

• 

  Built in 1906 to welcome hundreds of newcomers daily, the Hotel de Inmigrantes is now a national museum.

See also[edit]

• National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina
• Racism in Argentina

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Population cartogram of Argentina