Page last modified 18 August 2023

Ecuador

Community

Area 283,561 square kilometres (land area 276,841 square kilometres, including the Galapagos Islands (7,844 square kilometres).� Ecuador claims a territory of 461,000 square kilometres, however 191,000 square kilometres of the Amazon area is disputed with, and currently administered by, Peru.

Population,

665,000 (1850)

1,004,651 (1885)

1,250,000 (1900)

1,500,000 (1913)

3,089,078 (1942)

3,202,757 (1950)

4,545,000 (1960) +41.9%

6,073,000 (1970) +33.6%

7,976,000 (1980) +31.4%

10,218,000 (1990) +28.1%

12,629,000 (2000) +23.6%

14,935,000 (2010) +18.3%

17,643,000 (2020) +18.1%

Ethnicity

	Black	Indigenous	Mixed	White
1950	1.0	60.0	30.0	9,0
1970	1.0	41.3	40.0	5.0
1960	10.0	39.0	41.0	10.0

Religion,

	Animist	Christian J W	Christian Protestant	Christian R C	No Religion
1900	12.3		0.0	87.7	0.0
1970	0.8		1.3	96.7	0.3
1980				92.0
2010		1.2	10.4	74.0	7.9

Birth and death rates Below replacement rate = 2.1

	Fertility Rate	Birth Rate	Infant Mortality	Death Rate	% Aged Under 15	% Aged Over 65	% Urban
1952		47.0 (+28.0)	150.0	19.0	41.9	4.6	28.5
1962	6.7	46.0 (+31.0)	113.2	15.0	44.0	4.6	35.1
1970	6.5	41.0 (+30.0)	95.6	11.0	44.2	4.3	39.3
1980	5.1	37.0 (+29.2)	66.8	7.8	41.9	4.1	47.0
1990	3.7	29.0 (+22.7)	42.2	6.3	38.2	4.2	55.1
2000	3.0	25.0 (+)	24.3	5.2	34.7	5.0	60.3
2010	2.7	21.0 (+)	15.7	5.2	30.7	6.1	62.7
2015	2.5	20.5 (+)	13.0	5.1	29.0	6.7	63.4
2016			12.7		28.7	6.9
2017	2.5	20.0 (+14.9)	12.5	5.1
2018			12.2		28.0	7.2	63.8

Life expectancy,

48.4 (1952); 47.0 (M), 50.0 (F)

53.2 (1960); 52.0 (M), 54.5 (F)

57.8 (1970); 56.3 (M), 59.3 (F)

63.1 (1980); 61.1 (M), 65.1 (F)

66.6 (1990); 66.0 (M), 71.5 (F)

70.0 (2000); 71.0 (M), 76.1 (F)

72.3 (2010); 73.0 (M), 77.9 (F)

77.1 (2020); 74.3 (M), 79.9 (F)

Population of principal cities, 1,000s MA = Metropolitan Area

	Ambato	Cuenca	Guayaquil^1	QUITO^2
1900		25	50	40
1913			90	70
1938	25
1944		54	173	174
1950			259	210
1955	39	58
1960	44	67	450	314
1966	90	71
1970			823	500
1974		104		560
1990	229		1,508	1,100
1996		195
2001		277	1,985	1,400
2009			2,634	1,800
2011				4,700 MA
2014	350	700 MA	5,000 MA

¹Guayaquil was founded in 1537 by the Spanish explorer, Francisco del Orelana;

²Quito was an Inca city, named after the Quitu Indians. In 1822 it became the capital of the Dipartimento del Sud of the newly independent Gran Colombia; in 1831 it became capital of the new State of Ecuador.

Wealth; Gross Domestic Product (nominal values)

	GDP, US$ million	Total GDP, % of USA	GDP per capita, US$	GDP per capita % of USA
1948	134	0.06	40	2.62
1955	620�����������	0.17
1960	1,010	0.19	222	7.38
1965	2,387	0.32	454	11.86
1970	2,862	0.28	471	8.98
1975	7,731	0.47	1,106	14.14
1980	17,880	0.64	2,240	17.78
1985	17,150	0.41	1,724	9.44
1990	15,239	0.26	1,500	6.26
1995	24,430	0.33	2,135	7.10
2000	18,325	0.18	1,450	3.98
2005	41,507	0.32	3,020	6.82
2010	69,550	0.46	4,650	9.61
2015	100,175	0.56	6,200	11.03
2016	97,800	0.53	5,970	10.39

GDP by primary sector

	Agriculture % GDP	Agriculture % employed	Industry % GDP	Industry % employed	Services % GDP	Services % employed
1960		57.0		19.0		23.0
1970		51.0
1980	14.0	39.0	40.0	17.0	48.0	31.0
1990	12.0	33.0	36.0		52.0
2000	9.0	30.0	28.3	25.0	62.6	45.0
2010	6.4		34.5		59.0
2012		27.8		17.8		54.4
2016	6.4		33.8		59.7

Communications

Language, Official; Spanish.� Quecha also spoken

	Quecha	Spanish
1980		93.0
1990		93.0
2010	4.1	93.0

Literacy

68.0% (1960)

81.0% (1980)

90.1% (1990); 92.0% (M), 88.2% (F)

91.8% (2000); 93.4% (M), 90.3% (F)

92.6% (2010); 93.6% (M), 91.6% (F)

94.4% (2015); 95.4% (M), 93.3% (F)

Physical communications � roads and railways, First railway opened 25/6/1908 (construction began 1871), Quito to Guayaquil.

	Roads (km)	Surfaced (km)	Motor vehicles	Cars	Commercial Vehicles	Railways (km)
1880						68
1890						82
1900						501
1910						750
1920						1,000
1930						1,132
1940						1,106
1945						1,045
1955			21,000	4,000
1957				8,000	15,000	990
1961	14,746	858		10,700
1964			34,900	17,000	18,000
1968	16,726
1973	21,420
1975			51,300	77,200		965
1983	35,900		231,390	310,000	31,000
1986	37,636		321,600		35,900	971
1996		5,752		485,000	44,550
2002	43,197			540,000	55,000
2009	43,670	6,472	1,560,000
2013			2,066,000	1,721,200		965

Urban metro systems, kilometres

Quito Metro, In 2012 construction work began on a 23 km metro system in Quito. It is expected to open in 2019.

Electronic communications, Television broadcasts began in 1959 in Guayaquil, in 1961 in Quito, and in 1967 in Cuenca.

	Telephones (landlines)	Mobile Telephones	Radios	Televisions	PCs	Internet Users
1938	7,083		4,000
1941			29,000
1945	7,753
1950			50,000
1960			170,000
1961			175,000
1962	30,724
1965	43,000
1971			1,700,000
1975	165,000
1978	222,000			400,000
1980	227,600		1,800,000
1982				550,000
1990	490,508		3,330,000	880,000
1991					20,000
1994		18,920
1995		54,380	3,800,000	1,100,000	150,000
1997						5,000
2000	1,224,431	482,200	5,200,000	2,800,000	275,000
2002						537,900
2005		6,264,300		3,300,000	514,000	616,000
2010	2,086,000					3,750,000
2016	2,441,173	13,883,000				8,694,000

Tourism: Visitors to Ecuador,

148,071 (1974)

219,537 (1984)

243,500 (1980)

362,000 (1990)

440,00 (1995)

627,000 (2000)

860,784 (2005)

1,047,000 (2010)

1,543,000 (2015)