Peruvian People - Ethnic Structure of Peru

Ethnic Structure of Peru

The Peruvian census does not contain information about ethnicity so only rough estimates are available. It's population can be composed of Mestizos: 47%, Amerindians: 30%, European: 18%, Asians: 4%, Afro-Peruvians: 1%.

Amerindians are found in the southern Andes, though a large portion, also to be found in the southern and central coast due to the massive internal labor migration from remote Andean regions to coastal cities,during the past four decades.

While the Andes are the "heart" of the indigenous populations of Peru, White people are mostly found in the coast and are mostly of Spanish, Italian, British, French, German, Irish, and Croatian descent.

Socioeconomic and cultural indicators are increasingly important as identifiers. For example, Peruvians of Amerindian descent who have adopted aspects of Hispanic culture also are beginning to consider themselves "mestizo".

With economic development, access to education, intermarriage, and large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, a more homogeneous national culture is developing, mainly along the relatively more prosperous coast. Peruvians view themselves as a racially mixed people: a "half indigenous, a third European, a sixth African and one part Asiatic" composition as a "melting pot" recipe for a Peruvian stew.