People

Population

Colombia is the third most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. According to the official final number compiled by the 2005 national census conducted by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística—DANE), the national population was 41,468,384 in 2005. This adjusted figure takes into account geographical coverage omissions but does not include Colombians living abroad. According to the 2005 census, the population growth rate during 2001–5 was 1.6 percent. The estimated population growth rate in 2006 was 1.46 percent.

Colombia has a largely urban population. By 2005 the urban population had increased to 75 percent from 57 percent of the total population in 1951, according to the DANE census. About 35 percent of the total population is concentrated in four cities: Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla. Estimates of population density (inhabitants per square kilometer) have varied, ranging from 37 in 2000 to 44 in 2005. Moreover, population distribution throughout the country is very skewed. Population density in the eastern departments is less than one person per square kilometer.

The net migration rate in 2006 was –0.3 migrant(s) per 1,000 population. Migration from rural to urban areas has been prevalent. The move to urban areas reflects not only a shift away from agriculture but also a flight from guerrilla and paramilitary violence. According to the 2005 census, 1,542,915 Colombians were victims of forced displacement between 1995 and 2005, but the actual number may be between 2 and 3 million, according to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). More than 3.5 million Colombians have been displaced since 1985, according to the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (La Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento—Codhes), an authoritative NGO source. Almost 1 million people have been displaced since the government of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez took office in 2002, according to Codhes and official sources. Codhes recorded more than 250,000 newly displaced people in 2005, or 90,000 more than the government’s figure.

Owing to problems of security and unemployment, a total of 1.2 million Colombians abandoned the country legally during 2000–5 and have not returned. According to the 2005 census, 3,331,107 Colombians were living abroad. According to other estimates, the actual figure may exceed 4 million, or almost 10 percent of the country’s population. External migration is primarily to Ecuador, the United States, and Venezuela.

Demography

Colombia has a relatively young population, with a large percentage in the 0–14 age-group and about 80 percent of the population under age 45. The median age in 2006 was estimated at 26.3 years (25.4 years for males and 27.2 years for females). The estimated age profile of the population in 2006 was 30.3 percent in the 0–14 age-group, 64.5 percent in the 15–64 age-group, and 5.2 percent in the 65 and older age-group. According to the 2005 census, 48.8 percent of the population was male and 51.2 percent female. According to 2006 estimates, the birthrate was 20.48 per 1,000 population; the infant mortality rate was 20.35 deaths per 1,000 live births; life expectancy at birth for the total population was 71.99 years (males, 68.15 years; females, 75.96 years); the estimated total fertility rate was 2.54 children born per woman; and the estimated death rate was 5.58 deaths per 1,000 population. In 2004 the under-five mortality rate per 1,000 population was 24 for males and 17 for females, and the adult mortality rate per 1,000 population between 15 and 60 years of age was 226 for males and 93 for females. The greater number of male homicide victims accounts for the significant gap between life expectancy and the probability of dying for men and women.

The 2005 census found that approximately 66.7 percent of Colombian homes had four or fewer persons, and the average number was 3.9. It also determined that 44.9 percent of Colombians were single, 23 percent married, and 23.1 percent over 10 years of age were living together as unmarried couples.

Official Language

Spanish.

Ethnic Groups and Languages

The 2005 census defines ethnic groups as being the Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and gypsy populations. It defines the Afro-Colombian population as including blacks, mulattoes (mixed black and white ancestry), and zambos (mixed Indian and black ancestry). Although ethnic estimates vary widely, the census found that the Afro-Colombian population accounted for 10.5 percent of the national population; the indigenous population, for 3.4 percent; and the gypsy population, for 0.01 percent. The census also reported that the “nonethnic population” (whites and mestizos—those of mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) constituted 86 percent of the national population. Estimates of the mestizo category, to which almost all of the urban business and political elite belong, range from 54 percent to 58 percent of Colombia’s national population. Estimates of the category of unmixed white ancestry range from 20 percent to 40 percent.

The upper class, constituting 5 percent of the population, is overwhelmingly white; the middle class, 20 percent, is mostly mestizo; and the lower class, 75 percent, is proportionately mestizo, Afro-Colombian, and indigenous. The populations of major cities are primarily white and mestizo. Most indigenous people and Afro-Colombians live in rural areas—the former in barren and inaccessible regions and the latter in the Caribbean and Pacific coastal regions and tropical valleys.

The country has as many as 98 languages, of which 78 are living and 20 extinct. There are about 500,000 speakers of Amerindian languages, which include Wayuu, Camsá, and Cuaiquer, but their numbers are diminishing rapidly.

Religion

Article 19 of the 1991 constitution, building on the Concordat of 1973, gives Colombians the right to freely practice their religion on an equal basis with Roman Catholicism, which was traditionally the country’s official religion. The government generally respects this right in practice. However, for political reasons the illegal armed groups, both left-wing and paramilitary, have targeted religious leaders and practitioners, killing, kidnapping, or extorting them and thereby inhibiting free religious expression. An estimated 95 percent of Colombians (or only 87 percent, according to a low estimate) are at least nominally Roman Catholics, and the Roman Catholic Church enjoys a de facto privileged status. About 3 percent of Colombians are members of various Protestant groups. The remaining 2 percent, mostly Afro-Colombians, often engage in syncretic religious practices that blend forms of spirit worship with Roman Catholicism.

Education and Literacy

Total public spending on education constituted 4.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2004, one of the highest rates in Latin America. The ratio of pupils to teachers in 2001 was 26:1 in primary school and 19:2 in secondary school. The school year extends from February to November. Primary education for children between six and 12 years of age is free and compulsory for nine years, but in many rural areas teachers are poorly qualified, and only five years of primary school are offered. The net primary completion rate (percentage of relevant age-group) in 2004 was 94.3 percent. Secondary education (educación media) begins at age 11 and lasts up to six years, without any opportunity for vocational training. Secondary-school graduates are awarded the bachillerato (high-school diploma). Net secondary enrollment in 2004 was 74.5 percent. Tertiary school enrollment in 2004 as a percentage of gross was 26.9 percent. Colombia has 24 public universities.

According to the 2005 census, almost 11 million students attended primary and secondary schools. Of these students, 8,310,165 were in public schools and 2,475,304 in private schools. The census found that the percentages of the population enrolled in a formal educational establishment were 50.3 percent for those between three and five years of age, 90.7 percent for those between six and 10 years of age, and 79.9 percent for those between 11 and 17 years of age. The census data also indicated that 37.2 percent of the population had attained basic primary education; 31.7 percent, secondary; 7 percent, professional; and 1.3 percent, specialized studies (master’s or doctorate). The percentage of the population without any education was 10.5 percent. According to the census, 88.3 percent of the total population five years of age or older could read and write. This percentage varies depending on the age-group used. For example, according to a 2004 estimate, a total of 92.8 percent of the population 15 years of age or older is literate. Although literacy for males and females in this age-group is almost 93 percent in urban areas, it is only 67 percent in rural areas.

Health

Health standards in Colombia have improved greatly since the 1980s. A 1993 reform transformed the structure of public health-care funding by shifting the burden of subsidy from providers to users. As a result, employees have been obligated to pay into health plans to which employers also contribute. Although this new system has widened population coverage by the social and health security system from 21 percent (pre-1993) to 56 percent in 2004 and 66 percent in 2005, health disparities persist, with the poor continuing to suffer relatively high mortality rates. In 2002 Colombia had 58,761 physicians, 23,950 nurses, and 33,951 dentists; these numbers equated to 1.35 physicians, 0.55 nurses, and 0.78 dentists per 1,000 population, respectively. In 2005 Colombia was reported to have only 1.1 physicians per 1,000 population, as compared with a Latin American average of 1.5. The health sector reportedly is plagued by rampant corruption, including misallocation of funds and evasion of health-fund contributions.

General government spending on health accounted for 20.5 percent of total government expenditures and for 84.1 percent of total health expenditures (private expenditures made up the balance) in 2003. Total expenditures on health constituted 5.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2005. The per capita expenditure on health care in 2005 at an average exchange rate was US$150.

Since 2001–2 Colombia has halved its homicide rate, which was more than 60 per 100,000 inhabitants, or 28,837, in 2002, one of the world’s highest homicide rates. In 2006 a total of 17,206 violent deaths were recorded, the lowest figure since 1987. Other than homicide, heart disease is the main cause of premature death, followed by strokes, respiratory diseases, road accidents, and diabetes. Waterborne diseases such as cerebral malaria and leishmaniasis are prevalent in lowland and coastal areas. Child immunization for measles in 2004 as a percentage of children under 12 months of age was 92 percent.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the fifth-leading cause of death in the working-age population. According to Colombia’s National Health Institute data reported in 2003, nearly 240,000 people—mostly women and young people—or 0.6 percent of the population had been infected with the virus since AIDS arrived in Colombia in October 1983. Estimates of the number of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), adults and children (0–49 years of age), in 2005 ranged from 160,000 to 310,000. The comparable figure for women (15–49 years of age) was 62,000. The number of AIDS and hepatitis B cases has been rising. In 2005 the estimated HIV adult prevalence rate (15–49 years of age) was 0.6 percent. As of 2006, between 5,200 and 12,000 people had died from AIDS. Services provided by the new Multisectoral National Plan, launched in July 2004, include integrated care for people living with HIV and provision of antiretroviral drugs. Under the plan, about 12,000 people have been receiving combined antiretroviral therapy (approximately 54 percent of those requiring it).

Welfare

All Colombian workers are legally required to be affiliated with a basic pension and health provider. The Social Security Institute (Instituto de Seguros Sociales—ISS) is one of Colombia’s largest state companies and is the principal agency involved in the social security field, with responsibility for health care, pensions, and professional risks. In the private sector, workers can choose between the private system based on individual accounts or the state-run system. Employers and employees contribute jointly to a unified social security system. In mid-2005, private pension funds had approximately 6.1 million account holders, and private pension funds had become the largest institutional investors in Colombia. Pension liabilities have been rising in Colombia as a result of corruption and the government’s failure to pay into the system as originally planned or to readjust contributions. A pension reform approved in mid-2005 reduced annual pension payments from 14 percent to 13 percent and eliminated privileged pension benefits. The number of retirees in the ISS system starting in 2008 was expected to increase from 819,000 to 955,000. From 2009 on, the government will have to bear the increased cost of allowing women to retire at age 55 and men to retire at age 60, with 75 percent of the final basic wage if they had paid in 1,000 weeks or 90 percent if they had paid in 1,250 weeks by that date.

Serious social problems include high rates of criminal violence, extensive societal discrimination against women, child abuse, and child prostitution; trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation; widespread child labor; extensive societal discrimination against indigenous people and minorities; drug addiction; poverty; and displacement of the rural population. The 2005 government census found that about 800,000 children between the ages of 12 and 17 work in Colombia. The only industry identified in Colombia that uses child labor and directly exports to the United States is the flower agribusiness, where children are used in both the processing and harvesting of flowers. The number of children (0–17 years of age) orphaned from all causes was 910,000 at the end of 2003.

After having reached a low of 50 percent in 1997, the proportion of the population living below the poverty line exceeded 60 percent in 2005, according to the Comptroller General’s Office. However, the Colombian government’s official estimate was just under 49.2 percent in 2005. The government estimated that the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty in 2005 was 15 percent, down from 26 percent in 2002, although in rural areas the incidence of extreme poverty could be as high as 40 percent.

Source: Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Colombia, February 2007