Venezuelan People - Ethnic Groups

Ethnic Groups

The country has a diverse population that reflects its colourful history and the peoples that have populated here from ancient times to the present. The historic amalgam of the different main groups forms the basics of Venezuela's current demographics: European immigrants, Amerindian peoples, Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners and other recent immigrants.

Many of the indigenous peoples were absorbed into the mestizo population, but the remaining 500,000 currently represent over eighty-five distinct cultures. The European immigrants were primarily Spanish colonists, but a high number of other Europeans brought by the past high growth (Portugal, Italian, German, also many North Americans) migrated to the region in the middle 20th century by the Petroleum Growth, and in smaller numbers French, English and Polish communities immigrated during the Second World War and the Cold War.

Black Africans were brought as slaves, mostly to the coastal lowlands, beginning early in the 16th century, and continuing into the 19th century. Other immigrant populations include Asians and Middle Easterners, particularly Lebanese, Syrians, and Chinese.

About 49,9% of the population is mestizo, or of mixed European, African, and Amerindian ancestry, while 42,2% are white of European ancestry and/or Middle Eastern ancestry. Another 3,5% is black, or of mixed black African and European ancestry, while 2,7% is of Amerindian ancestry, and 1,1% other races ( principally Asian people).

In the metropolitan area of Caracas is concentrated the majority of the Europeans (mainly Spanish, Italians, Portuguese) and their descendants, emigrated in Venezuela after WWII

Pure indigenous Amerindians comprise 1 percent of the population. There are 101 languages listed for Venezuela in the Ethnologue database, of which 80 are spoken today as living languages.