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Haiti POPULATION
![[PDF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pdf.gif)
Figure 12. Population Distribution by Age and Sex, 1982
Source: Based on information from République d'Haïti, Santé et
Population en Haiti, Port-au- Prince, Institut Haïtien de
Statistique et d'Informatique, 1986, 8.
Demographic Profile
The estimated population of Haiti in 1989 was 6.1
million,
with an average population density of 182 people per
square
kilometer. Some 75 percent of the population lived in
rural
areas, while only 25 percent remained in urban areas; this
was
one of the lowest urban-to-rural population ratios in
Latin
America and the Caribbean. The estimated annual population
growth
rate between 1971 and 1982 was 1.4 percent. The crude
mortality
rate in 1982 was estimated to be 16.5 percent, with a
crude birth
rate of 36 percent (see
table 11, Appendix A). A profile
of the
population reveals that the majority of Haitians are young
(see
fig. 12).
Haiti has conducted only a few censuses throughout its
history. A survey taken during 1918 and 1919 indicated
that there
were about 1.9 million people in the country. The first
formal
census, taken in 1950, showed that the population had
reached 3.1
million. The second census, in 1971, indicated a
population of
4.2 million. Critics have argued that these censuses,
along with
one taken in 1982 (the final results of which were still
unavailable as of 1989), were deficient and that they
seriously
undercounted the population.
Urban areas, particularly Port-au-Prince, grew
significantly
in the 1970s and the 1980s. The annual population growth
rate of
metropolitan Port-au-Prince was estimated to be 3.5
percent
between 1971 and 1982, substantially above the 1.4 percent
national rate for that period. The growth rate for other
urban
areas was estimated at 2.4 percent. Metropolitan
Port-au-Prince,
which includes the capital and the suburbs of Delmas and
Carrefour, was by far the largest urban area, in 1982,
with a
population of 763,188, or about 61 percent of the total
urban
population. The population of the second largest city,
CapHaïtien , was estimated to be 64,400 in 1982. The next two
largest
towns, Gonaïves and Les Cayes, had estimated populations
of
slightly more than 34,000. Six other towns had populations
greater than 10,000.
The rural population, which grew about 1 percent a year
between 1971 and 1982, was estimated to be 3.8 million in
1982,
3.4 million in 1971, and 2.7 million in 1950. In 1982
there were
about 464 people per square kilometer in rural areas, one
of the
highest population densities in the Western Hemisphere.
Data as of December 1989
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