Nicaragua DEMOGRAPHY
Figure 5. Annual Rate of Population Increase, 1955-2010
Source: Based on information from Boletin
Demografico/Demographic Bulletin, Santiago, Chile, 1990, 45.
Figure 6. Crude Birth and Death Rates, 1955-2010
Source: Based on information from Boletin
Demografico/Demographic Bulletin, Santiago, Chile, 1990, 45.
Figure 7. Population by Age and Sex, 1988
Source: Based on information from Nicaragua, Instituto Nacional de
Estadisticas y Censos, Nicaragua: 10 anos en cifras.
Managua, 1988, 12.
Figure 8. Population, 1950-2010
Source: Based on information from Nicaragua, Instituto Nacional de
Estadisticas y Censos, Nicaragua: 10 anos en cifras.
Managua, 1988, 11.
Since the 1950s, Nicaragua has had a persistently high
rate
of population increase and rapid urban growth, both of
which were
expected to continue into the twenty-first century. The
Sandinista revolution had little effect on these
demographic
trends. The Nicaraguan government has not carried out a
national
census since 1971, although it continued to register vital
statistics and collect demographic data through periodic
sample
surveys of the population. A United Nations (UN) agency,
the
Latin American Center for Demography (Centro
Latino-Americano de
Demografía--Celade), has collaborated with Nicaraguan
authorities
to develop national population estimates.
In 1990 an estimated 3.87 million people lived in
Nicaragua
(see
table 2, Appendix A). The population had tripled in
the
preceding twenty-five years and was expected to double
again in
the following twenty-five
(see
fig. 5). In the late 1980s,
the
population was expanding at a rate of 3.4 percent
annually, far
above the Latin American average of 2.1 percent for the
same
period.
This extraordinary growth reflects declining mortality
and
high fertility rates
(see
fig. 6). Mortality rates have
dropped
steadily since the 1950s. By 1990 the death rate, which
had been
high by regional standards, had dropped to 8 per 1,000
inhabitants, close to the Latin American average of 7 per
1,000
inhabitants. Nicaragua's total fertility rate in the 1980s
was
5.7, meaning that a typical Nicaraguan woman could expect
to have
almost six children in the course of her childbearing
years, two
more than the regional average. Although total fertility
and
crude birth rates are expected to decline, both, according
to
demographic projections, should remain above Latin
American
averages well into the next century.
Continuing high fertility rates, together with a
long-term
reduction in the infant mortality rate, have produced a
very
young population. In 1990 nearly half of the population
was less
than fifteen years old. The broad base and rapidly
tapering shape
of Nicaragua's age-sex pyramid is typical of high-growth,
developing countries. Although the pyramid can be expected
to
broaden in the middle as the population ages and mortality
and
fertility rates drop, the pyramid will not assume the
almost-
diamond shape typical of high-income countries until well
into
the twenty-first century
(see
fig. 7).
Life expectancy at birth in Nicaragua advanced from
about
forty-five in the late 1950s to sixty-two in the 1991.
There are,
nevertheless, considerable variations in these average
figures.
In general, women can expect to survive three years longer
than
men. Casual observation in Nicaragua and world experience
suggest
that city dwellers and more affluent segments of the
population
live significantly longer lives. The life expectancy of
upper-
class Nicaraguans was probably closer to the
seventy-one-year
average found in developed countries in 1988 than to the
Nicaraguan national average of sixty-two.
In 1993 Nicaragua was rapidly turning into an urban
society.
The thickening bands of shantytowns surrounding the larger
cities
provide ample evidence of the hectic pace of change. The
government defines as urban all cities and towns with more
than
1,000 inhabitants. By this standard, 55 percent of the
population
lived in urban areas in 1990. Although birth rates in the
towns
and cities are significantly lower than they are in the
countryside, large-scale internal migration to towns and
cities
has resulted in the faster growth of the urban population.
From
1970 to 1990, the urban population expanded at an
explosive
annual rate of 4 percent, whereas the rural population
grew at
only 2.3 percent.
Much of the urban growth is concentrated in the capital
city.
The inhabitants of Managua constituted 7.5 percent of the
national population in 1940, 15 percent in 1960, and 28
percent
in 1980. By 1992 Managua's population was estimated at 1.5
million. No other Nicaraguan city was anywhere near that
size.
The country's second largest city is León, an important
regional
center with a population of roughly 130,000 in 1990. The
other
important provincial cities, all with populations that
range from
50,000 to 100,000, are Matagalpa, Masaya, and Granada.
Somewhat
smaller are the principal towns on the Caribbean coast,
Bluefields and Puerto Cabezas. However, accurate estimates
of
populations of Nicaraguan cities have not been available
since
the 1970s.
Explosive population growth and rapid urbanization
magnify
many of Nicaragua's development problems
(see
fig. 8).
High birth
rates strain the country's inadequate health and education
systems, and the expanding population takes a heavy toll
on the
environment. Rapid urbanization requires expensive
investment in
transportation and sanitation infrastructures. Despite
these
problems, successive Nicaraguan governments (including the
Sandinista administration) have declined to make
population
control a national priority. Nicaraguans are, in fact,
divided
over the issue. Although some people regard excessive
demographic
growth as an obstacle to development, others question the
notion
that their country, with the lowest population density in
Central
America (32 persons per square kilometer in 1990), should
worry
about overpopulation. In addition, the hierarchy of the
Nicaraguan Roman Catholic Church and other conservative
Roman
Catholics have repeatedly stated their religious
objections to
birth control.
Nicaragua's population historically has been unevenly
distributed across the country. In pre-Columbian times,
the
Pacific lowlands, with their fertile soils and relatively
benign
climate, supported a large, dense population. The central
highlands sustained smaller numbers, and the inhospitable
Caribbean lowlands were only sparsely populated. This
basic
settlement pattern remained unchanged 500 years later.
More than
60 percent of Nicaraguans live within the narrow confines
of the
Pacific lowlands. About half as many live in the central
highlands, but the Caribbean lowlands, covering more than
half of
the national territory, hold less than 10 percent of the
population. In 1986 population densities ranged from 137
persons
per square kilometer in the Pacific departments to 28 in
the
departments of the central highlands and fewer than 10
persons in
the two eastern autonomous regions.
Ethnically, Nicaragua is a relatively homogeneous
country. In
1993 some 86 percent of Nicaraguans were ladinos--people
of
European or mixed European and indigenous descent, who
shared a
national Hispanic culture. In the nineteenth century,
there was
still a substantial indigenous minority, but this group
largely
has been assimilated culturally into the Hispanic
mainstream. The
country's racial composition is roughly as follows:
mestizo
(mixed indigenous-European), 76 percent; European, 10
percent;
indigenous, 3 percent; and
Creoles (see Glossary),
or people of
predominately African ancestry, 11 percent. Modern
Nicaragua
generally has been spared the bitter ethnic conflicts that
other
Latin American countries with large culturally distinct
indigenous populations have suffered. In Nicaragua,
friction has
involved relations between the ladinos, who predominate in
the
west (the Pacific lowlands and central highlands), and the
nonladino minorities (indigenous peoples and Creoles) of
the east
or Caribbean lowlands.
In social terms, the country is split into two zones:
the
economic and political heartland of the west, encompassing
the
Pacific lowlands and the central highlands; and the
sparsely
settled east or Caribbean lowlands. The west, containing
the
major urban centers, is populated by Spanish-speaking
whites and
mestizos, both of whom regard themselves as Nicaraguans
and
participate, to a greater or lesser extent, in national
life. The
east, historically remote from the centers of political
and
economic decision making on the other side of the
mountains,
includes a sizable indigenous and Creole population that
has
never identified with the nation or participated in
national
affairs.
Almost the entire population of the Pacific lowlands
and
central highlands is either mestizo or white. Although no
distinct color line separates these two groups, social
prestige
and light skin color tend to be correlated, and the white
minority is distinctly overrepresented among economic and
political elites. Almost no culturally distinct indigenous
enclaves remain in the western half of the country.
Nicaraguans
sometimes refer to the "Indian" barrio of Monimbó in
Masaya, of
Subtiava in León, and to the highly acculturated
Matagalpan
"Indians" in the central highlands, but the cultural
patterns of
these populations are almost indistinguishable from others
who
share their economic position.
Having escaped assimilation into the Hispanic majority,
the
eastern, or Caribbean, hinterland is culturally
heterogeneous. In
many ways, it is a completely different country from the
Spanish-
speaking nation to the west. The Miskito, a mixed
Indian-Afro-
European people who speak an indigenous language, have
traditionally been the largest ethnic group in the region.
There
are also smaller indigenous communities known as Sumu and
Rama, a
large group of Creoles, and a rapidly expanding mestizo
population fed by migration from the west. In 1990 the
Miskito
and Sumu composed most of Nicaragua's indigenous
population.
Data as of December 1993
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