Demographics of Nicaragua - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about the demographic
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...

features of the population of Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

, including population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

, ethnicity
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Demographics of Nicaragua

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!style="background:#f0f0f0;" align="left" valign="top"|Population
|style="background:#f0f0f0;" valign="top"| 5,675,356 (2007 est.)
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!align="left" valign="top"|Male population
|valign="top"| 2,839,168
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! style="background:#f0f0f0;" align="left" valign="top"|Female population
| style="background:#f0f0f0;" valign="top"| 2,836,188
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!align="left" valign="top"|Population growth
|valign="top"| 1.855%
|-
! style="background:#f0f0f0;" align="left" valign="top"|Birth rate

Birth rate

Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...

National Institute of Statistics and Census of Nicaragua

The National Institute of Statistics and Census of Nicaragua is the institution in charge of completing censuses and surveys...

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According to the CIA World Factbook

The World Factbook

The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office...

, Nicaragua has a population of 5,675,356. Mestizos (mixed Amerindian and white) make up about 69% of the population, and whites 17%. The remainder of the Nicaraguan population is 9% black, and 5% Amerindian. Nicaraguan demographics reflected a different composition prior to the Sandinista revolution of 1979 since most of the migration during the years that followed were primarily of upper or middle class Nicaraguans, a group primarily made up of whites. A growing number of these expats have returned, while many continue to live abroad.

The most populous city in the country is the capital city, Managua

Managua

Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...

, with a population of 1.2 million (2005). As of 2005, over 4.4 million inhabitants live in the Pacific, Central and North regions, 2.7 in the Pacific region alone, while inhabitants in the Caribbean region only reach an estimated 700,000.

The Census Bureau in Nicaragua is the National Institute of Statistics and Census

National Institute of Statistics and Census of Nicaragua

The National Institute of Statistics and Census of Nicaragua is the institution in charge of completing censuses and surveys...

(INEC). The institution is in charge of completing census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

es and survey

Statistical survey

Survey methodology is the field that studies surveys, that is, the sample of individuals from a population with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population using the sample. Polls about public opinion, such as political beliefs, are reported in the news media in democracies....

s. INEC ran its first census in 1906, the last census was taken in 2005, it was the eighth to date.

Demographics

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! style="background:#efefef;" align=center | Group
! style="background:#efefef;" align=center | Number
|-
|Mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

(69%)
|align=right|2,915,995
|-
|White

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

(17%)
|align=right|1,964,810
|-
|Black

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

(9%)
|align=right|510,782
|-
|Amerindian (5%)
|align=right|283,767
|-
|colspan=2 style="background:#e9e9e9;" align=center|Source: CIA World Factbook (2007)
|-
|}
In the 19th century, there had been a substantial indigenous

Indigenous (ecology)

In biogeography, a species is defined as native to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention. Every natural organism has its own natural range of distribution in which it is regarded as native...

minority, but this group was also largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

majority. Primarily in the 19th century, Nicaragua saw several waves of immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

from other European nations. In particular the northern cities of Estelí

Estelí

Estelí, officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and municipality within the Estelí department. It is the third largest city in Nicaragua, an active commercial center in the north and is known as "the Diamond of the Segovias."...

, Jinotega

Jinotega

Jinotega is the capital of Jinotega Department in the north central region of Nicaragua.-About:The capital city of the Department of Jinotega is the City of Jinotega. The Department of Jinotega produces 80% of the nation's coffee. It has a population of about 51,000 living inside a vast valley...

and Matagalpa

Matagalpa

Matagalpa is a city in Nicaragua, the capital of the department of Matagalpa. The city has a population of 109,100 , while the population of the department is more than 480,000. Matagalpa is Nicaragua's fifth largest city and one of its most commercially active outside of Managua...

have significant fourth generation Germans

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

. Most of Nicaragua's population lives in the western region of the country in the departments of Managua, Granada and Léon.

Ethnic groups

The majority of the Nicaraguan population are deemed Mestizo and white; 69% are Mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

s (mixed Amerindian and White

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

) and 17% are deemed "white", with the majority of these being of Spanish

Spanish people

The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

, German, Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

, Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

and French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

ancestry. Mestizos and whites mainly reside in the western region of the country and combined make up 86% of the Nicaraguan population, approximately 4.8 million people.

About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black, or Afro-Nicaraguan

Afro-Nicaraguan

Afro-Nicaraguan are Nicaraguans of African descent in Nicaragua. They make up 9% of the population, according to the CIA factbook and can be found in the southeastern coast, the mosquito coast, in Bluefield. In the 1990 Nicaraguan national census put them at 25,000 or 1% of the population. They...

, and mainly reside on the country's sparsely populated Caribbean or Atlantic coast. The black population is mostly of West Indian

Antilles

The Antilles islands form the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles" to the north and west, including the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles" on the...

(Antillean) origin, the descendants

Kinship

Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....

of indentured laborers brought mostly from Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

when the region was a British protectorate

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...

. Nicaragua has the largest Afro Latin American population in Central America with the second largest percentage. There is also a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed Carib, Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

n, Congolese

Kongo people

The Bakongo or the Kongo people , also sometimes referred to as Kongolese or Congolese, is a Bantu ethnic group which lives along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire to Luanda, Angola...

and Arawak descent.

The remaining 5% are Amerindians, the unmixed descendants of the country's indigenous inhabitants. Nicaragua's pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

population consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region the Nicarao

Nicarao

Nicarao is the name of the capital city of the most populous indigenous tribe when the Spanish arrived in Nicaragua. Gil González Dávila, who first explored the area, came up with this Central American country's name by combining Nicarao and the Spanish word Agua, meaning water, after the two large...

people, whom the country is named after, were present along with other groups related by culture and language to the Mayans. The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua was inhabited by indigenous peoples who were mostly chibcha related groups that had migrated from South America, primarily present day Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

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...

. These groups include the Miskitos, Ramas and Sumos

Sumo (people)

The Mayagna are a people who live on the eastern coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, an area commonly known as the Mosquito Coast. Their preferred autonym is Mayagna, as the name "Sumo" is a deragatory name historically used by the Miskito people.Their language belongs to the Misumalpan language...

. In the 19th century, there was a substantial indigenous

Indigenous (ecology)

minority, but this group was also largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

majority. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the department of Zelaya

Zelaya (Nicaragua)

Zelaya is a former department in Nicaragua. The capital was Bluefields. In 1986 it was divided into two autonomous regions:* Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte * Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur...

- consisting of the eastern half of the country — into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the Republic.

Indigenous population

Those belonging to recognized indigenous communities (2005)
Rama	4,185	0.9%	Garifuna	3,271	0.7%
Sumo Sumo (people) The Mayagna are a people who live on the eastern coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, an area commonly known as the Mosquito Coast. Their preferred autonym is Mayagna, as the name "Sumo" is a deragatory name historically used by the Miskito people.Their language belongs to the Misumalpan language...	9,756	2.2%	Miskito	120.817	27.2%
Ulwa	698	0.2%	Creole Creole peoples The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...	19,890	4.5%
Sutiava	19,949	4.5%	Nicarao Nicarao Nicarao is the name of the capital city of the most populous indigenous tribe when the Spanish arrived in Nicaragua. Gil González Dávila, who first explored the area, came up with this Central American country's name by combining Nicarao and the Spanish word Agua, meaning water, after the two large...	11,113	2.5
Chorotega	46,002	10.4	Matagalpa	15,240	3.4%

According to the 2005 census, 443,847 inhabitants declared themselves Amerindian (Indigenous). Over 50% of the population lived in rural areas. With 120,817 inhabitants declaring themselves Miskito, they make up 27.2% of the total Indigenous population, followed by the Caribbean Coast mestizos. In addition to the inhabitants who declared themselves Indigenous, approximately 13,640 answered "Other" totaling 3.1%. Another 47,473 responded "Not Sure" and an additional 19,460 responded "Ignore", totaling 15.1%.

Immigration

Relative to its overall population, Nicaragua has never experienced any large scale wave of immigrants. The total number of immigrants to Nicaragua, both originating from other Latin American countries and all other countries, never surpassed 1% of its total population prior to 1995. The 2005 census showed the foreign-born population at 1.2%, having risen a mere .06% in 10 years. This is not to say that immigrants were not important to the evolution of Nicaraguan society and the Nicaraguan nation.

In the 19th century Nicaragua experienced a wave of immigration, primarily from Europe. In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium generally moved to Nicaragua to set up businesses with money they brought from Europe. They established many agricultural businesses such as coffee and sugar cane plantations, and also newspapers, hotels and banks.

There is also a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrian

Demographics of Syria

Syrians today are an overall indigenous Levantine people. While modern-day Syrians are commonly described as Arabs by virtue of their modern-day language and bonds to Arab culture and history...

, Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

, Palestinian Nicaraguan

Palestinian Nicaraguan

Palestinian Nicaraguan are Nicaraguans of Palestinian ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Nicaragua...

, Jewish Nicaraguan, and Lebanese

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

people in Nicaragua with a total population of about 30,000. There is also an East Asian community of Japanese, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

ese and Chinese

Han Chinese

Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...

. The Chinese Nicaraguan

Chinese Nicaraguan

Chinese Nicaraguans are Nicaraguans of Chinese ancestry who immigrated to or born in Nicaragua...

population is estimated at around 12,000. The Chinese arrived in the late 19th century but were unsubstantiated until the second census (in 1920) revealed 400 people of the Chinese nationality.

Emigration

During the Nicaraguan Revolution

Nicaraguan Revolution

The Nicaraguan Revolution encompasses the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front which led to the violent ousting of that dictatorship in 1979, and the...

and the Civil War, thousands of Nicaraguan

Nicaraguan

Nicaraguans are people inhabiting in, originating or having significant heritage from Nicaragua. Most Nicaraguans live in Nicaragua, although there is also a significant Nicaraguan diaspora, particularly in Costa Rica and the United States with smaller communities in other countries around the world...

s left the country. After the 1990 Nicaraguan Elections

Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro is a Nicaraguan political leader, former president and publisher. She became president of Nicaragua on April 25, 1990, when she unseated Daniel Ortega...

some people returned, but many more emigrated during the rest of the decade. In 1998, the Hurricane Mitch

Hurricane Mitch

Hurricane Mitch was the most powerful hurricane and the most destructive of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph . The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season. Along with Hurricane Georges, Mitch...

killed almost 4,000 people in the country and destroyed much of the Nicaraguan Economy

Economy of Nicaragua

Nicaragua's economy is focused primarily on the agricultural sector. However, the country is the least developed country in Central America and the second poorest in the Americas by nominal GDP. GDP fell by almost 3% in 2009, due to decreased export demand in the US and Central American markets,...

, as a result thousands of Nicaraguans received the TPS

TPS

-Math, science, and engineering:*Theorem Proving System, an automated theorem proving system for first-order and higher-order logic*Twin Prime Search, a distributed computing project that looks for large twin primes...

for emigrate to the United States as "refugees". In recent years, many Nicaraguans had left the country to escape to the poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

and unemployment

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

.

Nicaraguan emigration is a recent process. During the 1990–2004 period, more than 800,000 Nicaraguans left the country, compared to 100,000 during the 1970–1989 period. According to the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, in 2005 there were 683,520 Nicaraguans living outside Nicaragua legally. If illegals are counted, some sources cite as many as 1,500,000 Nicaraguans living abroad by the end of 2005. Nicaraguans are the third largest community of Central Americans living abroad, after Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

ns and Salvadorans. Nicaragua is also the second country in Central America by percentage of population living abroad.

Remittances to Nicaragua represent about 15% of the country's GDP. In 2008 Nicaragua received close to one billion dollars in remittances; an increase from the $750,000,000 received in 2007, according to the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

Population

The most populous city in Nicaragua is the capital city, Managua

Managua

, with a population of 1.2 million (2005). As of 2005, over 4.4 million inhabitants live in the Pacific, Central and North regions, 2.7 in the Pacific region alone, while inhabitants in the Caribbean region only reach an estimated 700,000.

According to the UN, Nicaragua has a population of 5,743,000 (2009 estimate) with a population growth rate of 1.31% and a birth rate

Birth rate

of 24.9/1,000 population, third highest in the region. The life expectancy

Life expectancy

for Nicaraguans at birth is 72.90 years; 69.99 for males and 76.00 for females. Nicaragua is the second country in Central America by immigrants expulsion, 210,000 during the period 2005–2010, lower only than that of Guatemala

Guatemala

Departments by population

Rank	City	Department Departments of Nicaragua Nicaragua is a unitary republic, and for administrative purposes, it is divided into 15 departments and two self-governing regions based on the Spanish model:-Zelaya Department:...	Pop.	Rank	City	Department Departments of Nicaragua Nicaragua is a unitary republic, and for administrative purposes, it is divided into 15 departments and two self-governing regions based on the Spanish model:-Zelaya Department:...	Pop.
1	Managua Managua Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...	Managua Managua (department) Managua is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 3,672 km² and has a population of 1,380,300 . The capital is the city of Managua.- Municipalities :# Ciudad Sandino# El Crucero# Managua# Mateare# San Francisco Libre...	1,262,978	10	Estelí Estelí Estelí, officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and municipality within the Estelí department. It is the third largest city in Nicaragua, an active commercial center in the north and is known as "the Diamond of the Segovias."...	Estelí Estelí (department) Estelí is a department of Nicaragua. It covers an area of 2,335 km² and has a population of 215,400 . Its capital is the city of Estelí.- Municipalities :# Condega# Estelí# La Trinidad# Pueblo Nuevo# San Juan de Limay# San Nicolás...	201,548
2	Matagalpa Matagalpa Matagalpa is a city in Nicaragua, the capital of the department of Matagalpa. The city has a population of 109,100 , while the population of the department is more than 480,000. Matagalpa is Nicaragua's fifth largest city and one of its most commercially active outside of Managua...	Matagalpa Matagalpa (department) Matagalpa is a department or region in central Nicaragua. It covers an area of 8,523 km² and has a population of 644,900 . The capital is the city of Matagalpa with about 250.000....	469,172	11	Granada Granada, Nicaragua Granada is a city in western Nicaragua and the capital of the Granada Department. With an estimated population of 110,326 , it is Nicaragua's fourth most populous city. Granada is historically one of Nicaragua's most important cities, economically and politically...	Granada Granada (department) Granada is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 929 km² and has a population of 190,600 . The capital is the city of Granada, one of North America's oldest cities- Municipalities :# Diria# Diriomo# Granada# Nandaime...	168,186
3	Chinandega Chinandega Chinandega is a town and the departmental seat of Chinandega department in Nicaragua. It is also the administrative centre of the surrounding municipality of the same name. The city has a population of 121,793 inhabitants with 151,000 in the municipality...	Chinandega Chinandega (department) Chinandega is a department in Nicaragua, located on the border with Honduras. It covers an area of 4,926 km² and has a population of 441,300...	378,970	12	Jinotepe Jinotepe Jinotepe is a city in Nicaragua, located in Department of Carazo in the South Pacific region of Nicaragua at the municipality of Jinotepe. It borders with Managua, Masaya, Granada, and Rivas.It is a sister city of Santa Cruz, California, United States....	Carazo Carazo (department) Carazo is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 1,081.40 km² and has a population of 177,100 . The capital is Jinotepe.- Municipalities :# Diriamba# Dolores# El Rosario# Jinotepe# La Conquista# La Paz de Carazo# San Marcos...	166,073
4	León León, Nicaragua León is a department in northwestern Nicaragua . It is also the second largest city in Nicaragua, after Managua. It was founded by the Spaniards as Santiago de los Caballeros de León and rivals Granada, Nicaragua, in the number of historic Spanish colonial homes and churches...	León León, Nicaragua León is a department in northwestern Nicaragua . It is also the second largest city in Nicaragua, after Managua. It was founded by the Spaniards as Santiago de los Caballeros de León and rivals Granada, Nicaragua, in the number of historic Spanish colonial homes and churches...	355,779	13	Rivas	Rivas	156,283	Managua Managua Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
5	Jinotega Jinotega Jinotega is the capital of Jinotega Department in the north central region of Nicaragua.-About:The capital city of the Department of Jinotega is the City of Jinotega. The Department of Jinotega produces 80% of the nation's coffee. It has a population of about 51,000 living inside a vast valley...	Jinotega Jinotega (department) Jinotega is the second largest department in Nicaragua. It is bordered on the north by the country of Honduras. The departments surrounding it are, Matagalpa to the south, Zelaya to the east, and Estelí, Madriz, and Nueva Segovia. It covers an area of 9,755 km² and has a population of 297,300...	331,335	14	Juigalpa	Chontales Chontales Chontales is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 6,481.27 km² and has a population of 182,000 . The capital is Juigalpa.-Municipalities:# Acoyapa# Comalapa# El Coral# Juigalpa# La Libertad# San Francisco de Cuapa...	153,932	Granada Granada, Nicaragua Granada is a city in western Nicaragua and the capital of the Granada Department. With an estimated population of 110,326 , it is Nicaragua's fourth most populous city. Granada is historically one of Nicaragua's most important cities, economically and politically...
6	Bilwi Bilwi Bilwi, with an approximate population of 60,000, is the main city of the municipality of Puerto Cabezas in the North Atlantic Coast department of Nicaragua....	RAAN Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte , sometimes shortened to RAAN, is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 32,159 km² and has a population of 249,700 . It is the largest autonomous region or department in Nicaragua...	314,130	15	Boaco Boaco Boaco is the capital city and municipality of the Boaco department of Nicaragua. The municipality of Boaco has a population of 56,900 and an area of 1,086.81 km² while the department is 4,177 km2....	Boaco Boaco (department) Boaco is a department in Nicaragua. It was formed in 1938 out of part of Chontales. It covers an area of 4,244 km² and has a population of 171,000 . The capital is the city of Boaco. Indigenous peoples are the Nuhuas and Sumos....	150,636
7	Bluefields Bluefields Bluefields is the capital of the municipality of the same name, and of Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur in Nicaragua. It was also capital of the former Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions...	RAAS Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur , sometimes shortened to RAAS, is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 27,407 km² and has a population of 382,100...	306,510	16	Somoto	Madriz Madriz (department) Madriz is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 1,602 km² and has a population of 133,300 . The capital is Somoto.Madriz was created from Nueva Segovia department in August 1936, and named after José Madriz.- Municipalities :...	132,459
8	Masaya Masaya Masaya, culturally known as the City of Flowers, is the capital city of Masaya department. It is situated approximately 14 km west of Granada and 31 km southeast from Managua. The town of Masaya is situated just East of Masaya Volcano , an active volcano from which the city takes its name...	Masaya Masaya (department) Masaya is a department in Nicaragua. It is the country's smallest department by area and has a population of 317,500 . The capital is the city of Masaya.-Municipalities:# Catarina# La Concepción# Masatepe# Masaya# Nandasmo...	289,988	17	San Carlos San Carlos, Río San Juan San Carlos is the capital city of the municipality of San Carlos and of the Río San Juan Department of Nicaragua. The city proper has a population of roughly 12,174, while the city and surrounding communities contain 37,461 as of 2005. San Carlos is positioned on the confluence of Lake Nicaragua...	Río San Juan Río San Juan (department) Río San Juan is a department in Nicaragua. It was formed in 1957 from parts of Chontales and Zelaya departments. It covers an area of 7,473 km² and has a population of 95,500 . The capital is San Carlos. The Department also includes the Solentiname Islands archipelago and the San Juan River,...	95,596
9	Ocotal Ocotal Ocotal is the capital of the Nueva Segovia Department in Nicaragua, Central America.-Description:Ocotal is the capital of the Nueva Segovia Department in Nicaragua with light industry and crafts. The main agricultural production is coffee. The city, which has a population of 31,932 , is located...	Nueva Segovia	208,523	18	Total	--	5,142,098 (2005)

Language

Language	Speakers
Languages of Nicaragua
Arabic	400
Chinese	7,000
English	20,334
Garífuna Garifuna language Garifuna is an Arawakan language spoken in Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize by the Garifuna people. The language is also spoken to a lesser extent in Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast. Historically it was referred to as Carib or Black Carib and Igñeri by Europeans. Garifuna has a vocabulary split between...	1,500
Miskito Miskito language Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras....	154,400
Sign language Nicaraguan Sign Language Nicaraguan Sign Language is a signed language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s...	3,000
Spanish	4,347,000
Sumo Sumo language Sumo is the collective name for a group of Misumalpan languages spoken in Nicaragua and Honduras. Hale & Salamanca classifies the Sumu languages into a northern Mayangna, composed of the Twahka and Panamahka dialects, and southern Ulwa...	6,700
Rama Rama language Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito and Sumu . Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the...	24
Creole English Miskito Coastal Creole Mískito Coast Creole or Nicaragua Creole English is a language spoken in Nicaragua based on English. Its approximately 30,000 speakers are found along the Mosquito Coast of the Caribbean Sea. The language is nearly identical to Belizean Creole , and similar to all Central American Creoles...	30,000
Source: Ethnologue

The official language of Nicaragua is 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...

, or Nicañol as Nicaraguan Spanish is sometimes referred to, and is spoken by the country's population. In Nicaragua the Voseo

Voseo

Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....

form is common, just as in other countries in Central and South America like Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

. Spanish has many different dialects spoken throughout Latin America, Central American Spanish

Central American Spanish

Central American Spanish is the general name of the Spanish language dialects spoken in Central America...

is the dialect spoken in Nicaragua.

Phonology

Some other characteristics of Nicaraguan phonology include:

/s/ at the end of a syllable or before a consonant is pronounced like [h].
j (/x/), is aspirated; it is soft as the /h/ in English (e.g.: Yahoo).
Intervocalic /b/, /d/, and /g/ show no sign of reduction, and are much more pronounced than in most dialects.
In some regions the double /l/ is pronounced with a ( "Shhh") sound, Argentina has a similar accent.
There is no confusion between /l/ and /r/, as in the Caribbean.
/s/, /z/ and in some cases /c/ (as in cerrar) are pronounced as [s]
/m/ at the end of a word tends to be pronounced as [n]

Nicaraguans on the Caribbean coast speak their indigenous languages and also English. The indigenous peoples of the east who use their original language tend to also speak Spanish and/or English, the main languages being Miskito language

Miskito language

Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras....

, Sumo language

Sumo language

Sumo is the collective name for a group of Misumalpan languages spoken in Nicaragua and Honduras. Hale & Salamanca classifies the Sumu languages into a northern Mayangna, composed of the Twahka and Panamahka dialects, and southern Ulwa...

, and Rama language

Rama language

Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito and Sumu . Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the...

. Creole languages are also present in the Caribbean coast, Nicaragua Creole English has 30,000 speakers.

Nicaragua has many minority groups. Many ethnic groups in Nicaragua, such as the Chinese Nicaraguan

Chinese Nicaraguan

Chinese Nicaraguans are Nicaraguans of Chinese ancestry who immigrated to or born in Nicaragua...

s and Palestinian Nicaraguan

Palestinian Nicaraguan

Palestinian Nicaraguan are Nicaraguans of Palestinian ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Nicaragua...

s, have maintained their ancestral languages while also speaking Spanish and/or English. Minority languages include Chinese, Arabic, German, Italian among others. Nicaragua also has a total of 3 extinct language

Extinct language

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...

s.

Nicaraguan Sign Language

Nicaraguan Sign Language

Nicaraguan Sign Language is a signed language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s...

is also of particular interest to linguists.

Religion

Religious Affiliation in Nicaragua

}
}}
|-
! style="background:#efefef;" align=center | Religion
! style="background:#efefef;" align=center | Percentage
|-
|Roman Catholic
|align=right|58.5%
|-
|Evangelical

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

|align=right|21.6%
|-
|Moravian
|align=right|1.6%
|-
|Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

|align=right|0.9%
|-
|None
|align=right|15.7%
|-
|Other¹
|align=right|1.6%
|-
|colspan=2 style="background:#efefef;" align=left|¹ Includes Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, and Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

among other religions.
|-
|colspan=2 style="background:#e9e9e9;" align=center|Source: 2005 Nicaraguan Census
|-
|}

Religion is a significant part of the culture of Nicaragua and forms part of the constitution

Constitution of Nicaragua

The Constitution of Nicaragua was reformed due to a negotiation of the executive and legislative branches in 1995. The reform of the 1987 Sandinista Constitution gave extensive new powers and independence to the National Assembly, including permitting the Assembly to override a presidential veto...

. Religious freedom, which has been guaranteed since 1939, and religious tolerance is promoted by both the Nicaraguan government and the constitution. Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

s are expected to lend their authority to important state occasions, and their pronouncements on national issues are closely followed. They can also be called upon to mediate between contending parties at moments of political crisis.

Although Nicaragua has no official religion it is nominally Roman Catholic. Practicing Roman Catholics are no longer the majority and are declining while evangelical

Evangelism

Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

Protestant groups and Mormons are growing rapidly have been growing since the 1990s. There are also strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast.

Roman Catholicism came to Nicaragua in the 16th century with the Spanish conquest and remained, until 1939, the established faith. 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...

and various Christian sects came to Nicaragua during the 19th century, but only during the 20th century have Protestant denominations gained large followings in the Caribbean Coast of the country. Popular religion revolves around the saints, who are perceived as intermediaries between human beings and God. Most localities, from the capital of Managua

Managua

to small rural communities, honor patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

s, selected from the Roman Catholic calendar, with annual fiestas. In many communities, a rich lore has grown up around the celebrations of patron saints, such as Managua's Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo), honored in August with two colorful, often riotous, day-long processions through the city. The high point of Nicaragua's religious calendar for the masses is neither Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

nor Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

, but La Purísima, a week of festivities in early December dedicated to the Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...

, during which elaborate altars to the Virgin Mary are constructed in homes and workplaces.

Demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook and the UN, unless otherwise indicated.

Ninety percent of Nicaraguans live in the Pacific lowlands and the adjacent interior highlands. The population is 54% urban with Managua

Managua

(capital) being the largest city, home to over a million inhabitants. In addition, many Nicaraguans live abroad

Nicaraguan Diaspora

The 1980s were the backdrop to a savage civil war which saw conflict destroy the nation of Nicaragua, and the lives of 50,000+ civilians in the process. The multicultural country of Nicaragua experienced an excessive outpouring of citizens who fled the nation for their own security...

Age structure

0–14 years:
33.8% (male 1,025,426/female 988,148)

15–64 years:
62.9% (male 1,734,153/female 1,746,574)

65 years and over:
3.3% (male 79,589/female 101,466) (2009 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:
1.04 male(s)/female

15–64 years:
1.00 male(s)/female

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

total population:
1.00 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Ethnic groups

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

(mixed Amerindian and white) 69%, white

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

17%, black

Black people

9%, Amerindian 5%

Religions

Roman Catholic 58.5%, Evangelicals 21.6%, Moravian 1.6%, Jehovah's Witnesses 0.9%, other 1.6%, none 15.7% (2005 census).

Languages

Spanish (official)

note:
English and indigenous languages on Atlantic coast

Literacy

definition:
age 15 and over can read and write

total population:
67.5%

male:
67.2%

female:
67.8% (2003 est.)

External links

CIA World Factbook

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Indigenous population

Immigration

Emigration

Population

Departments by population

Language

Religion

Demographic statistics

Age structure

Sex ratio

Ethnic groups

Religions

Languages

Literacy

See also

External links