Editing Demographics of Nicaragua (section)

===Indigenous population===
The Native American population, the unmixed descendants of the country's indigenous inhabitants, numbered 227,760 (4.4% of the total population) in 2005.<ref name="census 2005"/> Nicaragua's [[pre-Columbian]] consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region, the [[Nicarao people]] were present along with other groups such as the [[Mangue language|Mangue]] and [[Subtiaba language|Subtiaba]], all three being considered [[Mesoamerica]]n peoples.

The central region and the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua were mainly inhabited by speakers of [[Misumalpan languages]] and some speakers of [[Chibchan languages]]. These groups include the [[Miskito people|Miskitos]] (120,817 people), [[Matagalpa people|Matagalpa]] (15,240 people), [[Rama people|Ramas]] (4,185 people), [[Sumo (people)|Sumos]] (9,756 people) and Ulwa (698 people).

In the 19th century, the indigenous population was more demographically significant, but they have since largely been culturally assimilated into the [[mestizo]] majority. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the department of [[Zelaya (Nicaragua)|Zelaya]]&nbsp;– consisting of the eastern half of the country&nbsp;— into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the Republic.{{clear}}

{| border=1 align=right cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 style="margin: 0.5em 1em 1em 1em; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" width=34%
|-
!colspan=6|Those belonging to recognized indigenous communities (2005)
|-align=right
|align=left|[[Rama people|Rama]]||4,185||0.9%||align=left|Chorotega||46,002||10.4
|-align=right
|align=left|[[Sumo (people)|Sumo]]||9,756||2.2%||align=left|[[Miskito people|Miskito]]||120.817||27.2%
|-align=right
|align=left|Ulwa||698||0.2%||align=left|[[Matagalpa people|Matagalpa]]||15,240||3.4%
|-align=right
|align=left|Subtiaba||19,949||4.5%||align=left|[[Nahua peoples|Nahua]]||11,113||2.5
|-align=right
|}