Demographics of Haiti - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Although Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

averages approximately 255 people per square kilometer (650 per sq. mi.), its population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

is concentrated most heavily in urban area

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s, coastal plain

Coastal plain

A coastal plain is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. One of the world's longest coastal plains is located in eastern South America. The southwestern coastal plain of North America is notable for its species diversity...

s, and valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

s. About 80-85% of Haitians are of predominantly West African descent. The remainder of the population is primarily mulatto

Mulatto

Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...

es. There are tiny Arab, Asian and European communities. Hispanic residents in Haiti are mostly Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n and Dominican

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. About two thirds of the Haitian population live in rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

areas.

Although there was a national census taken in Haiti in 2003, much of that data has not been released to the public. Several demographic studies, including those by social work researcher Athena Kolbe

Athena Kolbe

Athena Kolbe is a human rights researcher and writer affiliated with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.- Research on Haiti :In 2006, Athena Kolbe published the results of a household study in the Lancet which found that 8000 people had been killed and an estimated 35000 women and girls had...

have shed light on the current status of urban residents. In 2006 households averaged 4.5 members. The median age was 25 years with a mean average age of 27 years. People aged 15 and younger counted for roughly a third of the population. Overall, 52.7 percent of the population was female.

Languages

Taíno

Taíno language

Taíno, an Arawakan language, was the principal language of the Caribbean islands at the time of the Spanish Conquest, including the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Florida Keys, and the Lesser Antilles...

was the major pre-Columbian language in the region now known as Haiti. One of the country's official languages is Haitian Creole

Haitian Creole language

Haitian Creole language , often called simply Creole or Kreyòl, is a language spoken in Haiti by about twelve million people, which includes all Haitians in Haiti and via emigration, by about two to three million speakers residing in the Bahamas, Cuba, Canada, France, Cayman Islands, French...

, a French-based creole

Creole language

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...

with African influences, as well as minor Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

and Taíno influences. French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

is the other official language. Spanish, though not official, is spoken by a growing amount of the population. It is spoken more frequently near the border with the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

. English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

is increasingly spoken among the young and in the business sector.

Religion

The state religion is Roman Catholicism which 80-85% of the population professes. 15-20% of Haitians practice Protestantism

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

. A significant percentage of the population also practice Vodou traditions approximately 20-25%, but these claims are denied by a significant amount of the strict Roman Catholic populace. Haitians that do practice both faiths however tend to see no conflict in these African-rooted beliefs co-existing with the Roman Catholic faith.

Education

Although public education

Public education

State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...

is free, private

Private school

Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...

and parochial

Parochial school

A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...

schools provide around 75% of educational programs offered. Less than 65% of children of primary school

Primary education

A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...

age are actually enrolled. At the secondary

Secondary education

Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...

level, the figure drops to 55%. Of those enrolled in primary school, 63% will complete it. On average, it takes 16 years to produce a single graduate of the 6-year cycle. Though Haitians place a high value on education, few can afford to send their children to secondary school. Remittances sent by Haitians living abroad are important in paying educational costs.

In the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, home to 2.21 million of Haiti's 8.5 million people, only 23 percent of adults have completed secondary school with 16 percent passing the state graduation exam. More than half (53.5 percent) of children aged 5-17 do not attend school.

Emigration

Large-scale emigration

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

, principally to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

(predominantly to Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, with other areas of the country) - but also to Cuba

Cuba

, other areas of Europe and the Americas such as France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

(with French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

), Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

; and Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

, the Bahamas and other Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

neighbors - has created what Haitians refer to as the Eleventh Department or the Diaspora

Diaspora

A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...

. About one of every six Haitians live abroad.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook .^† note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected
^‡ note: the preliminary 2011 numbers differ significantly from those of 2010, which were strongly influenced by the demographic effect of the January 2010 earthquake; the latest figures more closely correspond to those of 2009

Population: 9,719,932 (2011 est.)^†

Age structure: (2010 est.)

0–14 years: 38.1% (male 1,735,917; female 1,704,383)

15–64 years: 58.5% (male 2,621,059; female 2,665,447)

65 years and over: 3.4% (male 120,040; female 188,690)

Median age: (2010 est.)

Total: 21.1 years

Male: 20.9 years

Female: 21.4 years

Population growth rate: 0.787% (2011 est.)^‡

Birth rate: 24.4 births/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Death rate: 8.21 deaths/1,000 population (2011 est.)^‡

Net migration rate: -8.32 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Sex ratio: (2010 est.)

At birth: 1.011 male(s)/female

Under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female

15–64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female

Total population: 0.98 male(s)/female

Infant mortality rate: (2011 est.)^‡

Total: 54.02 deaths/1,000 live births

Male: 58.16 deaths/1,000 live births

Female: 49.83 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth: (2011 est.)^‡

Total population: 62.17 years

Male: 60.84 years

Female: 63.53 years

Total fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...

rate: 3.07 children born/woman (2011 est.)

Nationality:

Noun: Haitian(s)

Adjective: Haitian

Ethnic groups: Black 95%, Mulatto and White 5%

Religions: Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist

Adventist

Adventism is a Christian movement which began in the 19th century, in the context of the Second Great Awakening revival in the United States. The name refers to belief in the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It was started by William Miller, whose followers became known as Millerites...

1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3%

Languages: French

French language

(official), Haitian Creole

Haitian Creole language

(official), Spanish

Spanish language

(non-official)

Literacy: (2008 est. by IHSI)

Definition: Age 15 and over that can read and write

Total population: 61.0%

Male: 63.8%

Female: 58.3%

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