The population of Paraguay

More than 90% of paraguay's population are mestizos. Nowadays, only 2 percent of the population are natives and belong to 17 different ethnic groups (part of that are the Maká, the Aché and the Angaité), the rest are european and asian immigrants. With almost 2,5%, per year, the population growth is extremely high. The anticipated average life adds up to 72 years for men and 77 years for women.

The natives live mostly in the "Gran Chaco", the savannah and dry forest region in the west of the country, where they have to fight for their rights as well as land and water. From 80 percent of the good land, one percent belongs to rich squires. A third of the farmers don't own any land. More than half of the population live below the poverty line. Out of affliction, a lot of people – especially women – recently leave the country and immigrate into other countries: The USA, but especially Spain.
The countries greatest urban centres are Asunción (large capacy of more than a million), Ciudad del Este (round 120.000 citizens) and San Lorenzo (120.000 citizens as well). Paraguay has approximately 16 citizens per km².

Round half of the population lives in the countryside. More than 50% of the citizens are young people between the age of 12 to 30. The number of illiterates is still quite high, even though officially, a school attendance exists. But sadly, there is a lack of schools to transact the school attendance. Furthermore, it is hard to supervise the compliance of the school attendance in the lonesome wilderniss of the "Gran Chaco". In the countryside, onle 3% of the first graders stay in school until they graduate! The official school attendance since 1998 averages nine years, even though a lot of the compulsory school age children drop out early, because the economical disadvantaged classes of population are dependent on these children's help with the breadwinning. In comparison to that, the percentage of those who accomplish to receive a higher certificate is very low, especially in the countryside. On the other side, it seems as though recently more and more teenagers begin to see the important connection between educaion and and their occupational future.

Next to the public university (UNA) with its approximately 21.000 students and the catholic university, there are numerous universities with different reputations. The decision if a certifiacte is accepted or not varies from case to case, it is not automatically accepted. In Paraguay, it is normal to have another occupation next to studying.

There are two official languages: Spanish and the native language Guarani. Paraguay is the only country in south America that raised one of its native languages to a community language.

Most paraguayans traditionally belong to the catholic church. But during the last years, a lot of evangelic churches recorded an intense growth, just like the rest of south America by the way. Freedom in the choice of religion and faith are not just constitutional basic rights in Paraguay, but are as well absolute present since the rebound to democracy.

Paraguay has almost 30.000 homeless children – with an increasing tendency. Some children try to earn some money by offering service like cleaning shoes. Often they don't by food or drinks from that money, but have to give it to their warlord. In return, he promises them security, because the life on the streets is very dangerous. That is why at some point most of the kids join a gang. Often, there are fights between the different gangs, and there happen to be conflicts and bloody crimes.