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Venezuela SOCIETY
Population: Estimated 19.7 million in 1990.
Extremely
high average annual growth rate of 3.4 percent from
1950-86; had
declined to 2.5 percent by 1990.
Ethnic Groups: About 68 percent of population
mestizo
(mixed race), 21 percent unmixed Caucasian, 10 percent
African,
and 1 percent Indian.
Language: Spanish official language. Indian
dialects
spoken by isolated groups (less than 1 percent of
population).
Religion: Over 90 percent nominally Roman
Catholic;
approximately 5 percent Protestant (mainly evangelical).
Education and Literacy: Over 88 percent of
population
fifteen years or older considered literate in 1985. Basic
education consisted of nine years of compulsory schooling.
Best
known and oldest university was Central University of
Venezuela
in Caracas.
Health: Generally good indicators by Latin
American
standards. In 1990 life expectancy seventy-one years for
males,
seventy-seven for females. Death rate only 4 per 1,000
population, birth rate 28 per 1,000 population. Average
caloric
intake 107 percent of minimum established by Food and
Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations.
Data as of December 1990
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