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Ecuador POPULATION
Unavailable
Figure 4. Projected Population by Age and Sex, 1990
Source: Based on information from Centro Latinoamericano de Demografía,
Ecuador: Estimaciones y Projecciones de Población, 1950-2000, Quito,
1984, 78-83.
Unavailable
Figure 5. Selected Demographic Indicators, at Five-Year Intervals,
1950-2000
Source: Based on information from Centro Latinoamericano de Demografía,
Ecuador: Estimaciones y Projecciones de Población, 1950-2000, Quito,
1984, 48, 62.
Unavailable
Figure 6. Life Expectancy at Birth, by Five-Year Intervals, 1950-2000
Source: Based on information from Centro Latinoamericano de Demografía,
Ecuador: Estimaciones y Projecciones de Población, 1950-2000, Quito,
1984, 48, 62.
Unavailable
Figure 7. Total Fertility Rate, at Five-Year Intervals, 1950-2000
Source: Based on information from Centro Latinoamericano de Demografía,
Ecuador: Estimaciones y Projecciones de Población, 1950-2000, Quito,
1984, 48, 62.
The government conducted national censuses in 1950, 1962, 1974,
and 1982 and scheduled another for 1990. In the late 1980s,
estimates of total population by 1990 ranged from 10.8 to 11
million
(see
fig. 4). The annual growth rate was an estimated 2.3
to 2.8 percent. Population growth rates had been high since the
onset of modern census-taking, with an increase of 3.2 percent
annually in the 1960s and 3.0 percent in the 1970s. Demographers
expected the rate to decline to approximately 2.4 percent by the
end of the century. Their estimates of total population in 2000
ranged from 13.6 to 14.2 million with the lower figure more
commonly accepted.
Despite the declining growth rate, a variety of indicators from
the 1980s showed the country to be in the midst of a population
explosion that was likely to continue beyond the year 2000
(see
fig. 5). Between the early 1950s and the mid-1980s, the crude death
rate fell by nearly 60 percent. The infant mortality rate, which
dropped by nearly half to approximately 63 per 1,000 live births in
1985, accounted for most of the decline. The crude birth rate
dropped from 47 to 37 per 1,000 population during the same time;
given the relative youthfulness of the population, however, growth
rates could be expected to remain high for decades. Only Bolivia
had a higher population birth rate among South American countries.
Life expectancy increased by more than 25 percent between the 1950s
and the mid-1980s
(see
fig. 6).
The total fertility rate (the number of children a woman could
expect to bear during her life) dropped by an estimated one-third
between 1950 and 1990
(see
fig. 7). Socioeconomic background had a
significant impact on the rate; the mean by region or ethnic group
varied by as much as 3.5 children per woman. Estimates of the rate
by the year 2000 ranged from 3.6 to 4.3 children per woman.
The high rate of population growth generated pressure on the
country's limited resources. Even assuming only moderate growth to
the end of the century, the primary and secondary schools' budget
would have to rise to 70 percent over that of 1980 to keep pace
with population. Moreover, more than 120,000 new jobs would be
required each year to maintain employment levels of the early
1980s.
Increasingly aware of the high costs of continued population
growth, the government in the 1970s accepted in principle the need
for family planning and control of child spacing and attempted to
incorporate demographic variables into national economic planning.
Nonetheless, maternal and child health programs were often
ineffective. A contraceptive practices survey in 1982 found that 65
percent of the women not using contraceptives nevertheless wanted
to participate in some form of family planning and would have
participated in family planning if a program were available. Given
continued high birth rates, many demographers doubted government
estimates that 40 percent of women of childbearing age were using
contraceptives in the mid-1980s.
Data as of 1989
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