Demographics of Paraguay

Paraguay's population is distributed unevenly through the country. The vast majority of the people live in the eastern region, most within 160 kilometres (99 mi) of Asunción, the capital and largest city, which borders on Argentina to the south and west. The Gran Chaco in the north-west, which accounts for about 60% of Paraguayan territory, is home to less than 4% of the population.

Demographics of Paraguay
Population pyramid of Paraguay in 2020
Population	6,109,644 (2022 census)[1]
Growth rate	0.71% (2024)[1]
Birth rate	16.32 births/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Death rate	4.87 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Life expectancy	78.37 years
Fertility rate	1.95 children born/woman (2024)[1]
Infant mortality rate	14.4 deaths/1,000 live births
Net migration rate	-0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	25.4%
15–64 years	66.3%
65 and over	8.3%
Nationality
Nationality	Paraguayan
Major ethnic	Multiracial (N/D) Mestizo (N/D) Pardo (N/D) Others (N/D)
Minor ethnic	White (N/D) Spanish (N/D) Italian (N/D) German (N/D) Arab (N/D Others (N/D) Indigenous (2.29%)[2] Guaraní (1.17%) Nivaclé (0.29%) Enxet (0.28%) Others (0.55%) East Asian (N/D) Japanese (N/D) Others (N/D) Black (0.13%)[3]
Language
Official	Spanish and Guarani
Spoken	Languages of Paraguay

Ethnically, culturally, and socially, Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations in South America. About 75% of the people are mestizo (mixed Spanish and Guaraní Native American descent), 20% are Whites, and the rest are small minorities of Indigenous or Afro Paraguayan origin.^[4] Little trace is left of the original Guaraní culture except the language, which is spoken by 90% of the population. About 75% of all Paraguayans also speak Spanish. Guaraní and Spanish are official languages.

Paraguay has a history of foreign settlement, especially in the 20th century: Germans (the majority are Mennonites) with long-time Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner (President, 1954–1989) himself of German ancestry; Italians (around 40% of the total Paraguayan population is of full or partial Italian descent);^[5][6][7] Japanese with Okinawans; Koreans; Chinese; Arabs, Ukrainians; Poles; Southern Europeans; Jews; Brazilians; and Argentines are among those who have settled in Paraguay. There are also an estimated 234,000 Afro-Paraguayans, or 4% of the population.^[8]

European and Middle Eastern immigrants began making their way to Paraguay in the decades following the Paraguayan War of 1864–1870 (from 1870 onward). Only 28,000 men and 200,000 women had survived the war, the reason why Paraguay had since then a high rate of illegitimate births. The government pursued a pro-immigration policy in an effort to increase population. Government records indicated that approximately 12,000 immigrants entered the port of Asunción between 1882 and 1907, of whom almost 9,000 came from Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. Migrants also arrived from neighboring Spanish American countries, especially Argentina. The immigrant ethnic groups kept their cultures and languages to some extent, especially Brazilians – known as "Brasiguayos".^[9][10]

Official records gave an imprecise sense of the number of Brazilians who came to the country. According to the 1982 census, 99,000 Brazilians resided in Paraguay. Most^[quantify] analysts discounted this figure, however, and contended that between 300,000 and 350,000 Brazilians lived in the eastern border region.

Analysts also rejected government figures on the number of immigrants from South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The 1982 census reported that there were 2,700 Koreans in Paraguay, along with another 1,100 non-Japanese or non-Korean Asian immigrants. Virtually all Koreans and Chinese lived in Ciudad del Este or Asunción and played a major role in the importation and sale of electronic goods manufactured in Asia.

Paraguay became the site of radical and progressive colonies inspired by political thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A group of radical socialist Australians in the 1890s voluntarily went to create a failed master-planned community, known as Nueva (New) Australia (1893 -1897); and Elisabeth Nietzsche, a German racial ideologist and sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche came to Paraguay in her attempt to build a colony, Nueva Germania (Neues Deutschland) (founded 1886) devoted to a hypothetical pure white "Nordic" society.

A 2022 census found that Paraguay's population shrank as a production of migration and having smaller families, as well as better data integrity, resulting in a loss of over one million.^[11]

Population size and structure

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1950	1,328,452	—
1962	1,819,103	+2.65%
1972	2,357,955	+2.63%
1982	3,029,830	+2.54%
1992	4,152,588	+3.20%
2002	5,163,198	+2.20%
2022	6,109,644	+0.85%
Source:[12][13]

Demographics of Paraguay, Data of Our World in Data, year 2022; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Paraguay population density (people per km²)

According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects^[14][15] the total population was 6,703,799 in 2021, compared to only 1,473,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 33.5%, 61.4% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 5.1% was 65 years or older .^[16]

Year	Total population ( × 1000)	Population percentage in age bracket
		0–14	15–64	65+
1950	1 473	47.0%	50.1%	2.9%
1955	1 674	47.5%	49.5%	3.0%
1960	1 906	47.8%	49.0%	3.2%
1965	2 176	47.5%	49.2%	3.3%
1970	2 483	46.1%	50.4%	3.5%
1975	2 802	44.1%	52.3%	3.6%
1980	3 195	42.5%	53.8%	3.8%
1985	3 698	41.6%	54.5%	3.9%
1990	4 244	41.4%	54.6%	4.0%
1995	4 795	40.3%	55.4%	4.3%
2000	5 323	38.5%	57.2%	4.4%
2005	5 824	35.5%	59.8%	4.7%
2010	6 248	32.9%	61.8%	5.2%
2015	6 689	30.4%	63.7%	5.9%
2020	7 133	28.9%	64.3%	6.8%

Structure of the population

Age Group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	3 426 508	3 356 867	6 783 374	100
0–4	377 989	363 561	741 550	10.93
5–9	372 142	358 751	730 893	10.77
10–14	364 020	351 350	715 369	10.55
15–19	351 038	339 645	690 683	10.18
20–24	331 748	322 813	654 561	9.65
25–29	303 291	297 128	600 419	8.85
30–34	257 335	252 770	510 104	7.52
35–39	203 351	200 858	404 209	5.96
40–44	173 976	173 202	347 177	5.12
45–49	160 044	158 383	318 427	4.69
50–54	140 818	137 891	278 709	4.11
55–59	120 438	116 493	236 931	3.49
60–64	95 424	92 423	187 848	2.77
65–69	67 623	67 777	135 401	2.00
70–74	47 778	50 653	98 431	1.45
75–79	31 694	36 085	67 779	1.00
80+	27 800	37 082	64 882	0.96
Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0–14	1 114 151	1 073 662	2 187 813	32.25
15–64	2 312 357	2 091 608	4 403 965	64.92
65+	174 895	191 597	366 492	5.40

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2013) (Projections based on the 2002 Population Census.):^[17]

Age Group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	3 702 281	3 650 758	7 353 038	100
0–4	360 793	346 324	707 118	9.62
5–9	357 301	343 724	701 025	9.53
10–14	352 757	340 126	692 883	9.42
15–19	344 522	332 510	677 032	9.21
20–24	334 496	322 993	657 489	8.94
25–29	318 925	309 559	628 484	8.55
30–34	300 116	293 132	593 247	8.07
35–39	266 102	262 734	528 836	7.19
40–44	214 813	217 042	431 855	5.87
45–49	185 967	188 348	374 315	5.09
50–54	164 693	166 184	330 877	4.50
55–59	141 237	142 195	283 432	3.85
60–64	120 322	119 145	239 467	3.26
65–69	94 450	94 556	189 006	2.57
70–74	63 855	66 647	130 502	1.77
75–79	41 070	46 120	87 191	1.19
80+	40 863	59 417	100 280	1.36
Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0–14	1 070 851	1 030 174	2 101 025	28.57
15–64	2 391 192	2 353 844	4 745 036	64.53
65+	240 238	266 740	506 978	6.89

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2021) (Estimates or projections considering also the results of the 2012 Population Census.):^[18]

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events in Paraguay are not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. ^[16]

Period	per year			per 1000			total fertility rate (number of children per woman)	infant mortality rate per 1000 births	Life expectancy
	live births	deaths	natural change	crude birth rate	crude death rate	natural change			total	males	females
1950–1955	70,000	14,000	56,000	44.3	8.9	35.4	6.50	73	62.6	60.5	64.6
1955–1960	76,000	15,000	61,000	42.7	8.6	34.1	6.50	70	63.2	61.1	65.1
1960–1965	84,000	16,000	68,000	41.3	8.0	33.3	6.45	62	64.3	62.3	66.3
1965–1970	92,000	18,000	74,000	39.5	7.6	31.8	6.15	59	65.0	63.0	66.9
1970–1975	94,000	19,000	75,000	35.6	7.1	28.6	5.35	53	65.9	63.7	68.0
1975–1980	108,000	21,000	87,000	36.1	6.9	29.2	5.20	51	66.5	64.3	68.7
1980–1985	129,000	24,000	105,000	37.3	6.8	30.4	5.20	49	67.0	64.9	69.3
1985–1990	139,000	26,000	113,000	34.9	6.6	28.3	4.77	47	67.6	65.4	69.9
1990–1995	145,000	28,000	117,000	32.0	6.2	25.8	4.31	43	68.5	66.3	70.8
1995–2000	148,000	30,000	118,000	29.3	5.9	23.3	3.88	39	69.4	67.2	71.7
2000–2005	151,000	32,000	119,000	25.1	5.4	19.7	3.24	36	70.7	68.7	72.9
2005–2010	153,000	34,000	119,000	23.4	5.4	18.0	2.89	32	71.7	69.7	73.9
2010–2015	161,000	38,000	123,000	21.7	5.4	16.3	2.60	30	72.2	70.0	74.5
2015–2020	165,000	43,000	122,000	20.7	5.5	15.2	2.45	28	72.7	70.4	75.1
2020–2025				19.4	5.7	13.7	1.95
2025–2030				18.0	6.0	12.0	1.84

Registered births and deaths

Note that the numbers of births and deaths below are considered incomplete by the UN and by year of registration rather than by year of occurrence.

Year of registration	Population	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2009	6,168,757	103,309	18,758	84,551	16.7	3.0	13.7
2010	6,265,877	100,584	21,281	79,303	16.1	3.4	12.7
2011	6,363,276	111,945	22,652	89,293	17.6	3.6	14.0
2012	6,461,041	118,549	22,807	95,752	18.3	3.5	14.8
2013	6,559,027	114,619	24,193	90,426	17.5	3.7	13.8
2014	6,657,232	116,592	22,625	93,967	17.5	3.4	14.1
2015	6,755,756	132,241	24,885	107,356	19.6	3.7	15.9
2016	6,854,536	128,117	27,243	100,874	18.7	4.0	14.7
2017	6,953,646	129,903	26,404	103,499	18.7	3.8	14.9
2018	7,052,983	123,187	29,139	94,048	17.5	4.1	13.4
2019	7,152,703	117,347	32,362	84,985	16.4	4.5	11.9
2020[19]	7,252,672	95,649	36,466	59,183	13.2	5.0	8.2	2.41
2021[20]	7,353,038	112,966	50,898	63,314	15.4	6.9	8.5
2022 (ca)	6,284,020[21]	111,992	38,356	73,636	17.8	6.1	11.7
2023	6,326,825		37,570			5.9
2024	6,372,623							1.95

(ca) = 2022 census adjusted population.

Current vital statistics

^[22]

Period	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase
January–August 2023		26,299
January–August 2024		25,804
Difference		-495 (-1.88%)

Demographic and Health Surveys

Total Fertility Rate (Wanted Fertility Rate):^[1]

Year	TFR (Total)
1990	4.6
1995	4.0
2000	3.7
2005	2.9
2010	2.5
2024	1.95
2030	1.84
2035	1.79
2040	1.75
2045	1.73
2050	1.72

Ethnic groups

Ethnic groups of Paraguay[4]
Ethnic groups			percent
Mestizo			75%
White			20%
Afro-Paraguayans			0.13%
Indigenous			1.7%

The Paraguay's predominant ancestry is European, which represents a large part of the population, mainly descendants of Spaniards and Italians (who have contributed to repopulating the country after the Triple Alliance War) but there are also a large number of people of German ancestry, due to the German Mennonites (majority in the western part of the territory). There are 17 Mennonite colonies, only in the Paraguayan Chaco. It is one of the Latin American countries with the least indigenous traits (due to the fact that the traditional Paraguayan population; the Spanish mixture of Guaraní, had been annihilated by the war in 1870, which is why the country had to repopulate by resorting to immigration, especially the Italian in that country.) Taking into account the high fertility, Paraguay registers a majority young population structure. Of every ten people, four are under the age of 15 (2,339,000) and the population aged 15 to 29 represents a quarter of the total population. According to the Census (ECLAC, 1998), the population of indigenous nature that year was 29,482 people, that is, about 0.7% of the national population. There is a low percentage of people with distinctively Amerindian features and the absence of people with African features. The majority of the population is made up of mestizos who are descendants of the original population, the Guarani, and Europeans.

— Paraguay Embassy in Germany^[23]

Religion

Main article: Religion in Paraguay

Religions of Paraguay[4]
Religions			percent
Roman Catholic			89.6%
Protestant			6.2%
Other or Unspecified			1.9%
Other Christian			1.1%
None			1.1%

Languages

Main article: Languages of Paraguay

Languages of Paraguay
Languages			percent
Guaraní			90%
Spanish			87%