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Peru SOCIETY
Population: 22,767,543 in July 1992 with 2.0
percent
growth rate; density, 17.8 persons per square kilometer.
Projected population growth to 28 million by 2000 with
annual
growth rate of at least 2.1 percent. Population 70 percent
urban
in 1991.
Education and Literacy: Three-level, eleven-year
educational system based on reforms made after the 1968
revolution. First preprimary level for children up to six
years
of age. Free, six-year primary education at second level
(compulsory) for children between six and fifteen years of
age.
Five-year secondary education begins at age twelve. In
1990
primary school enrollment ratio 126 percent, but only 58.6
percent of school-age children attended school. Over
27,600
primary schools in 1988; over 5,400 secondary schools in
1990. In
1990 Peru had twenty-seven national and nineteen private
universities, all government-regulated and recipients of
public
funding. Estimated 85 percent literacy rate in 1990 (male
92
percent, female 79 percent) age fifteen and over.
Health: Peru's health indicators poor, with
annual
public health expenditure per capita of US$18 in 1985-90.
In 1992
birth rate 27 births per 1,000 population; infant
mortality rate
69 per 1,000 live births; life expectancy 63 years male,
67 years
female. Over 25 percent of urban residences and over 90
percent
of rural residences lacked potable water and sewerage,
resulting
in high death rates from infectious diseases. The 1990-91
cholera
epidemic ranked behind other more common diseases as cause
of
death (2,387 cholera deaths as of August 1991). In 1990-92
some
12 million Peruvians suffered extreme poverty.
Malnutrition and
starvation leading causes of illnesses. In 1991 about
1,200
children died weekly from malnutrition and extreme
poverty, while
38 percent of the survivors suffered chronic malnutrition.
Total
of 21,800 physicians in 1989 (1 per 1,000 persons). In
early
1992, abortion considered one of the prime health threats
for
Peruvian women. According to the Ministry of Public
Health, 43
percent of all maternal hospitalizations in Peru resulted
from
botched abortions. Abortion illegal in Peru except in
cases where
the mother's life is in danger.
Religion: Predominantly (92.5 percent) Roman
Catholic.
Protestantism, including Mormonism growing rapidly among
urban
poor and some indigenous tribes, although accounting for
only
about 4.5 percent of Peruvians in 1990. Other
denominations in
1990 included the Anglican Communion; the Methodist
Church, with
about 4,200 adherents; and the Bahai Faith.
Official language: Spanish.
Ethnic Groups: Unofficial estimates: Native
American,
45 percent; mestizo (mixed native American and European
ancestry), 37 percent; white, 15 percent; black, Asian,
and
other, 3 percent. Other estimates put native Americans as
high as
52.5 percent (Quechua, 47.1 percent; Aymara, 5.4 percent).
Data as of September 1992
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