Opata Population
Population estimates for Opateria at the time of Spanish contact range from 20,000 to 70,000 with most estimates nearer the higher figure. The Opatas were the most numerous of the several ethnic groups in the state of Sonora and the river valleys of their territory was densely populated with their permanent villages. Disease, war, and famine reduced the aboriginal population of Opateria to 6,000 by 1764. Today there are no known full-blooded Opatas left, but mestizo descendants still make up the majority population of traditional Opata territory, Many Opata descendants reside in other parts of Sonora, greater Mexico, and the southwestern United States, particularly in Arizona where their ancestors migrated to work in agriculture and mining.
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“The population question is the real riddle of the sphinx, to which no political Oedipus has as yet found the answer. In view of the ravages of the terrible monster over-multiplication, all other riddle sink into insignificance.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)