Editing Demographics of Ecuador (section)

==Nationality, ethnicity, and race==
{{Pie chart
|thumb = right
|caption = Ethnicity in Ecuador (2022)<ref name="censoecuador">{{cite web|date=21 September 2023|title=Ecuador: Censo de Población y Vivienda 2022|url= https://www.censoecuador.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/InfoNacionalDatos.pdf|website= censoecuador.gob.ec|accessdate= 22 May 2024}}</ref>
|label1 = [[Multiracial people|Multiracial]] 
|value1 = 86.62
|color1 = Grey
|label2 = [[Indigenous peoples in Ecuador|Amerindian]]
|value2 = 7.69
|color2 = Red
|label3 = [[Afro-Ecuadorians|Sub-Saharan]]
|value3 = 3.36
|color3 = Green
|label4 = [[White people|Caucasian]]
|value4 = 2.21
|color4 = Blue
|label5 = Others
|value5 = 0.12
|color5 = Black
}}
The Ecuadorian constitution recognizes the [[plurinationalism|pluri-nationality]] of those who want to exercise their affiliation with their native ethnic groups. There are five major ethnic groups in Ecuador: [[Mestizo]], [[White Latin American|European]], [[Afroecuatoriano|Afroecuadorian]], [[Indigenous peoples in Ecuador|Amerindian]], and Montubio. Mestizos constitute more than 85% of the population.<ref name="censoecuador"/> 
According to [[genealogical DNA test]]ing done in 2015, the average Ecuadorian is estimated to be 52.96% [[Indigenous peoples in Ecuador|Amerindian]], 41.77% [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European]], and 5.26% [[Sub-Saharan African]] overall.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations|journal=Nature Communications|volume=6|pmc=4374169|doi=10.1038/ncomms7596|pmid=25803618|date=24 March 2015|at=See [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4374169/bin/ncomms7596-s2.xlsx Supplementary Data]|last1=Montinaro|first1=F.|last2=Busby|first2=G. B.|last3=Pascali|first3=V. L.|last4=Myers|first4=S.|last5=Hellenthal|first5=G.|last6=Capelli|first6=C.|bibcode=2015NatCo...6.6596M}}</ref> Prior to this, a genetic study done in 2008 by the [[University of Brasília]], estimated that Ecuadorian genetic admixture was 64.6% Amerindian, 31.0% European, and 4.4% African.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Godinho |first1=Neide Maria de Oliveira |title=O impacto das migrações na constituição genética de populações latino-americanas |date=2008 |url=https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/5542 |access-date=19 June 2023 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112044147/https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/5542 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Ecuador]]'s population descends from [[History of ecuador#Spanish discovery and conquest|Spanish immigrants]] and [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|South American Amerindians]], admixed with descendants of black slaves who arrived to work on coastal plantations in the sixteenth century. The mix of these groups is described as [[Mestizo]] or [[Cholo]]. Censuses do not record ethnic affiliation, which in any event remains fluid; thus, estimates of the numbers of each group should be taken only as approximations. In the 1980s, Amerindians and Mestizos represented the bulk of the population, with each group accounting for roughly 40 percent of total population. Whites represented 10 to 15 percent and blacks the remaining 5 percent.<ref name=overview>{{csref|country=ecuador|section=Ethnic Groups|author=Patricia Kluck}}</ref>

According to Kluck, writing in 1989, ethnic groups in Ecuador have had a traditional hierarchy of white, [[Mestizo]], blacks, and then others.<ref name=whites>{{csref | country = ecuador| section = Whites and Mestizos| author  = Patricia Kluck}}</ref> Her review depicts this hierarchy as a consequence of colonial attitudes and of the terminology of colonial legal distinctions. Spanish-born persons residing in the New World (peninsulares) were at the top of the social hierarchy, followed by [[criollo people|criollos]], born of two Spanish parents in the colonies. The 19th century usage of Mestizo was to denote a person whose parents were an Amerindian and a white; a [[Cholo]] had one Amerindian and one Mestizo parent. By the 20th century, Mestizo and Cholo were frequently used interchangeably. Kluck suggested that societal relationships, occupation, manners, and clothing all derived from ethnic affiliation.<ref name=whites/>

Nonetheless, according to Kluck, individuals could potentially switch ethnic affiliation if they had culturally adapted to the recipient group; such switches were made without resort to subterfuge.<ref name=whites/> Moreover, the precise criteria for defining ethnic groups varies considerably. The vocabulary that more prosperous Mestizos and whites used in describing ethnic groups mixes social and biological characteristics. Ethnic affiliation thus is dynamic; Indians often become Mestizos, and prosperous Mestizos seek to improve their status sufficiently to be considered whites. Ethnic identity reflects numerous characteristics, only one of which is physical appearance; others include dress, language, community membership, and self-identification.<ref name=overview/>

A geography of ethnicity remained well-defined until the surge in migration that began in the 1950s. Whites resided primarily in larger cities. Mestizos lived in small towns scattered throughout the countryside. Indians formed the bulk of the Sierra rural populace, although Mestizos filled this role in the areas with few Indians. Most blacks lived in [[Esmeraldas Province]], with small enclaves found in the Carchi and Imbabura provinces. Pressure on Sierra land resources and the dissolution of the traditional hacienda, however, increased the numbers of Indians migrating to the Costa, the Oriente, and the cities. By the 1980s, Sierra Indians—or Indians in the process of switching their ethnic identity to that of Mestizos—lived on Costa plantations, in Quito, Guayaquil, and other cities, and in colonization areas in the Oriente and the Costa. Indeed, Sierra Amerindians residing in the coastal region substantially outnumbered the remaining original Costa inhabitants, the Cayapa and Colorado Indians. In the late 1980s, analysts estimated that there were only about 4,000 Cayapas and Colorados. Some blacks had migrated from the remote region of the Ecuadorian-Colombian border to the towns and cities of Esmeraldas.<ref name=overview/>

===Afro-Ecuadorian===
{{Main|Afro-Ecuadorian people}}
Afro-Ecuadorians are an [[ethnic group]] in Ecuador who are descendants of black African slaves brought by the Spanish during their conquest of Ecuador from the [[Inca]]s. They make up from 3% to 5% of Ecuador's population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ecuador/|title=The World Factbook|access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2010/06/ecuador_dreamto.html|title=FRONTLINE/WORLD . Rough Cut . Ecuador: Dreamtown – PBS|website=[[PBS]]|access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref>

Ecuador has a population of about 1,120,000 descendants from African people. The Afro-Ecuadorian culture is found primarily in the country's northwest coastal region. Africans form a majority (70%) in the province of [[Esmeraldas Province|Esmeraldas]] and also have an important concentration in the [[Valle del Chota]] in the [[Imbabura Province]]. They can be also found in important numbers in [[Quito]] and [[Guayaquil]].

=== Indigenous ===
{{Main|Indigenous peoples in Ecuador}}

====Sierra Indigenous====
[[File:EquateurOtavalo 0606.jpg|thumb|left|[[Otavalo people|Otavalo]] girl from Ecuador]]
Sierra Indigenous had an estimated population of 1.5 to 2 million in the early 1980s and live in the intermontane valleys of the Andes. Prolonged contact with Hispanic culture, which dates back to the conquest, has had a homogenizing effect, reducing the variation among the indigenous Sierra tribes.<ref name=sierra>{{csref
| country = ecuador
| section = Sierra Indigenous
| author  = Patricia Kluck
}}</ref>

The Indigenous people of the Sierra are separated from whites and Mestizos by a caste-like gulf. They are marked as a disadvantaged group; to be an Indigenous person in Ecuador is to be stigmatized. Poverty rates are higher and literacy rates are lower among Indigenous than the general population. They enjoy limited participation in national institutions and are often excluded from social and economic opportunities available to more privileged groups. However, some groups of Indigenous, such as the [[Otavalo people]], have increased their socioeconomic status to extent that they enjoy a higher standard of living than many other Indigenous groups in Ecuador and many [[Mestizo]]s of their area.

Visible markers of ethnic affiliation, especially hairstyle, dress, and language, separate Indigenous from the rest of the populace. Indigenous wore more manufactured items by the late 1970s than previously; their clothing, nonetheless, was distinct from that of other rural inhabitants. Indigenous in communities relying extensively on wage labor sometimes assumed Western-style dress while still maintaining their Indigenous identity. Indigenous speak Spanish and, Quichua—a Quechua dialect—although most are bilingual, speaking Spanish as a second language with varying degrees of facility. By the late 1980s, some younger Indigenous no longer learned Quichua.<ref name=sierra/>

====Oriente Indigenous====
[[File:Huaorani village.jpg|left|thumb| [[Huaorani|Waorani]] village]]
Although the Amerindians of the Oriente first came into contact with Europeans in the 16th century, the encounters were more sporadic than those of most of the country's indigenous population. Until the 19th century, most non-Amerindians entering the region were either traders or missionaries. Beginning in the 1950s, however, the government built roads and encouraged settlers from the Sierra to colonize the Amazon River Basin. Virtually all remaining Indians were brought into increasing contact with national society. The interaction between Indians and outsiders had a profound impact on the indigenous way of life.<ref name=oriente>{{csref
| country = ecuador
| section = Oriente Indigenous
| author  = Patricia Kluck
}}</ref>

In the late 1970s, roughly 30,000 Quichua speakers and 15,000 Jívaros lived in Oriente Indigenous communities. Quichua speakers (sometimes referred to as the Yumbos) grew out of the [[detribalization]] of members of many different groups after the Spanish conquest. Subject to the influence of Quichua-speaking missionaries and traders, various elements of the Yumbos adopted the tongue as a lingua franca and gradually lost their previous languages and tribal origins. Yumbos were scattered throughout the Oriente, whereas the Jívaros—subdivided into the Shuar and the Achuar—were concentrated in southeastern Ecuador. Some also lived in northeastern Peru. Traditionally, both groups relied on migration to resolve intracommunity conflict and to limit the ecological damage to the tropical forest caused by [[slash-and-burn]] agriculture.<ref name=oriente/>

Both the Yumbos and the Jívaros depended on agriculture as their primary means of subsistence. [[Manioc]], the main staple, was grown in conjunction with a wide variety of other fruits and vegetables. Yumbo men also resorted to wage labor to obtain cash for the few purchases deemed necessary. By the mid-1970s, increasing numbers of Quichua speakers settled around some of the towns and missions of the Oriente. Indians themselves had begun to make a distinction between Christian and jungle Indians. The former engaged in trade with townspeople. The Jívaros, in contrast to the Christian Quichua speakers, lived in more remote areas. Their mode of horticulture was similar to that of the non-Christian Yumbos, although they supplemented crop production with hunting and some livestock raising.<ref name=oriente/>

Shamans ([[curandero]]s) played a pivotal role in social relations in both groups. As the main leaders and the focus of local conflicts, shamans were believed to both cure and kill through magical means. In the 1980s group conflicts between rival shamans still erupted into full-scale feuds with loss of life.<ref name=oriente/>

The Oriente Indigenous population dropped precipitously during the initial period of intensive contact with outsiders. The destruction of their crops by Mestizos laying claim to indigenous lands, the rapid exposure to diseases to which Indians lacked immunity, and the extreme social disorganization all contributed to increased mortality and decreased birth rates. One study of the Shuar in the 1950s found that the group between ten and nineteen years of age was smaller than expected. This was the group that had been youngest and most vulnerable during the initial contact with national society. Normal population growth rates began to reestablish themselves after approximately the first decade of such contact.<ref name=oriente/>