Colombia is a Roman Catholic country with a population of 43,034.395 inhabitants (2001 estimates)41. The ethnicity42 of its population is rather diverse with mestizo (58%), white (20%), mulatto (14%), black (4%), zambo (3%) and indigenous (1%) origins. The literacy rate is 93% (2003 estimates). Spanish is its official language. Santa Fe de Bogotá (6,837,800 inhabitants) is the country’s capital and largest city. Other big cities are Cali (2,283,200 inhabitants), Medellín (1,957,800 inhabitants), Barranquilla (1,330,400 inhabitants) and Cartagena (901,500 inhabitants)43.
Most people live in urban areas (table 3) and the 2001 estimated growth of the Colombian population was 1.9% (table 4)
Table 3: Population structure44 (2001 estimates)
Total population |
43,034,395 |
(a) urban population |
30,693,455 |
(b) rural population |
12,341,939 |
Table 4: Population demography ( %) (2001 estimates)
Annual growth rate |
1.9 |
Crude birth rate |
21.7 |
(a) urban area |
21.6 |
(b) rural area |
25.6 |
Life expectancy at birth |
70.6 |
(a) for men |
69.2 |
(b) for women |
75.3 |
Crude death rate |
5.9 |
Number of inhabitants that left their homes due to violence in 2000 |
308,000 |
According to the United Nations Development Report for 2003, Colombia is ranked 64/175 countries, with a Human Development Index of 0. 77945. This places Colombia in the medium human development ranking.
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