Paraguay POPULATION
Figure 4. Population Density by Department, 1982
Source: Based on information from Paraguay, Dirección General de Estadística
y Censos, Censo nacional de población y viviendas, 1982: Cifras
Provisionales, Asunción, December 1982, 4.
Unavailable
Figure 5. Population by Age and Sex, 1982
Source: Based on information from Paraguay, Dirección General de Estadística
y Censos, Censo nacional de población y viviendas, 1982: Muestra del
10%, Asunción, September, 1984, 20.
The 1982 census enumerated a population of slightly more than 3
million. Demographers suggested annual growth rates from 2.5 to 2.9
percent in the late 1980s. Thus, in mid-1988, estimates of total
population ranged from 4 to 4.4 million. Assuming a yearly increase
of between 2.5 and 2.9 percent until the end of the century,
Paraguay would have a population of 5 to 6 million by the year
2000.
Modern censuses began under the direction of the General Office
of Statistics following the War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70).
In 1886-87 the census enumerated nearly 330,000 Paraguayans.
Beginning with the 1950 census, population counts have been
conducted by the General Directorate of Statistics and Census.
Censuses were taken in 1886-87, 1889, 1914, 1924, 1936, 1950, 1962,
1972, and 1982. Demographers distrust the 1889 data since the
numbers do not follow the generally accepted population growth
curve.
After moderate growth in the 1930s and 1940s, the annual
intercensal growth rate climbed sharply in the 1950s and 1960s (see
table 2, Appendix). Population was concentrated most densely in an
arc surrounding Asunción east of the Río Paraguay
(see
fig. 4). The
Chaco was the least settled area; the region lost population in the
1970s at an annual rate nearly equal to the national rate of
population increase during the same period--a trend that observers
believed continued into the 1980s. Settlement along the country's
eastern border increased significantly with improvements in
transportation and the construction of hydroelectric projects in
the region
(see Migration and Urbanization
, this ch.).
Since the 1950s, the ratio of males to females had increased
steadily--an unexpected trend. As a population's general level of
living, basic nutrition, and sanitation improve, the proportion of
women to men typically tends to rise as degenerative diseases take
a greater toll on the male population and women's longevity begins
to have a discernible statistical impact. Observers suggested that
a partial explanation of Paraguay's unusual pattern might be the
decreasing effect of the male emigration that occurred during the
decade following the civil war of 1947. The ratio of males to each
100 females was highest in rural areas (107) and lowest in cities
(94), reflecting a greater tendency of women to migrate to urban
areas.
The 1982 census also revealed a slightly aging population. In
1982 nearly 5 percent of Paraguayans were over sixty-five years
old, in contrast to 4 percent for this age-group a decade earlier.
Meanwhile, the percentage under age fifteen had dropped 3 percent,
to 41.8 percent
(see
fig. 5).
The average age at which Paraguayan women entered their first
marriage or consensual union began to rise in the 1950s. By the
late 1970s, women in Asunción averaged 19.7 years of age at their
first marriage; those in other cities were about 8 months younger
and those in rural areas were a year younger. The Ministry of
Public Health and Social Welfare cooperated in the family-planning
efforts of a number of international agencies active in the country
and managed several family- planning clinics in Asunción and other
parts of the country. Between 1959 and 1978, the total fertility
rate--an estimate of the average number of children a woman will
bear during her reproductive years--declined by nearly one-third,
to 4.97. Estimates put the rate at 4.6 in the mid-1980s, with 3.4
projected by the turn of the century.
Data as of December 1988
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