Peruvians (Spanish: peruanos/peruanas) are the citizens of Peru. What is now Peru has been inhabited for several millennia by cultures such as the Caral before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Peruvian population decreased from an estimated 5–9 million in the 1520s to around 600,000 in 1620 mainly because of infectious diseases carried by the Spanish. Spaniards and Africans arrived in large numbers in 1532 under colonial rule, mixing widely with each other and with Native Peruvians. During the Republic, there has been a gradual immigration of European people (especially from Spain and Italy, and to a lesser extent from Germany, France, Croatia, and the British Isles). Chinese and Japanese arrived in large numbers at the end of the 19th century.
With 31.2 million inhabitants according to the 2017 Census. Peru is the fourth most populous country in South America. Its demographic growth rate declined from 2.6% to 1.6% between 1950 and 2000, and its population is expected to reach approximately 46 - 51 million in 2050. As of 2017, 79.3% lived in urban areas and 20.7% in rural areas. Major cities include Lima, home to over 9.5 million people, Arequipa, Trujillo, Chiclayo, Piura, Iquitos, Huancayo, Cusco and Pucallpa, all of which reported more than 250,000 inhabitants.
The largest expatriate Peruvian communities are in the United States, South America (Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Brazil), Europe (Spain, Italy, France and the United Kingdom), Japan, Australia, and Canada.
In the 2017 Census, those of age 12 and above were asked what ancestral origin they belong to, with 60.2% of Peruvians self-identifying as mestizos, 20% as Quechuas, 5% as European, 3% as Afro-Peruvian, 2% as Aymaras, 0.6% as Amazonians, and 0.1% as Asian. Large indigenous populations live in the southern Andes, with other large populations found on the southern and central coast due to massive internal labor migration from the Andes to coastal cities over the past four decades.
Mestizos compose 60.2% of the total population. The term traditionally denotes Peruvians of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry (mostly Spanish ancestry). This term was part of the caste classification used during colonial times, whereby people of exclusive Spanish descent who were born in the colonies were called criollos, people of mixed Indigenous and Spanish descent were called mestizos, those of African and Spanish descent were called mulatos, and those of Indigenous and African descent were called zambos. Genetic analysis conducted among Peruvians from Lima found that they are of predominantly Indigenous ancestry. Most mestizos are urban dwellers and show stronger European inheritance in regions like Lima Region, La Libertad Region, Callao Region, Cajamarca Region, San Martin Region, Piura Region, Lambayeque Region, and Arequipa Region.
Ethnic groups of Indigenous origin constitute 25.8% of the total population. The two major ethnic groups are the Quechuas (belonging to various cultural subgroups), followed by the Aymara, mostly found in the extreme southern Andes. A large proportion of the ethnic groups who live in the Andean highlands still speak Quechua and have vibrant cultural traditions, some of which were part of the Inca Empire.
Dozens of Peruvian cultures are also dispersed throughout the country beyond the Andes Mountains in the Amazon basin. This region is rapidly becoming urbanized. Important urban centers include Iquitos, Nauta, Puerto Maldonado, Pucallpa and Yurimaguas. This region is home to numerous ethnic groups, though they do not constitute a large proportion of the total population. Examples of ethnic groups residing in eastern Peru include the Shipibo, Urarina, Cocama, and Aguaruna.
There is no special law for ethnic groups or reserves; they are Peruvians and are legally treated as such. In the present day, some isolated indigenous communities still live in the Peruvian Amazon. Though living far from other settlements, these communities enjoy the same rights and constitutional protections as Peruvians of other backgrounds.
European descendants total 5.9% of the total population. Most of them are descendants of Spanish settlers that came to the country during the colonial era, while others are descendants of other European ethnic groups that arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries like Italians, Germans, British, French, Irish, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, and Croats. Most of them also live in the largest cities, generally in the capital Lima and the northern cities of Peru: Trujillo, Tacna, Chiclayo and Piura.
The city of Arequipa in the south of Peru displays the majority of Spanish descendants in the south. Cajamarca in the highlands, parts of San Martin in the Rupa-Rupa or Amazonian Andes Area; Oxapampa and Pozuzo were populated by German and Austrian settlers also in the Rupa-Rupa or Amazonian Andes area.
A considerable European population migrated to Peru seeking economic opportunity in the booming oil, mining, fishing, sugar, cotton, guano, and rubber industries in the 19th century.
Recently, Peru has seen an influx of American senior citizens and businessmen looking for permanent residency to settle in the country, due to the lower cost of living, gastronomy, Amazon forest environment, and the ease of doing business in Peru due to liberalized economic policy in the 21st century.
Afro-Peruvians constitute 3.6% of the population. Peru, as a Spanish colony, has a history of involvement in the slave trade, with slave imports originating from Ghana, Angola, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Madagascar. As in other Spanish colonies, slaves were typically imported to perform labor work in sugar cane, cotton fields and vineyards, very few of them in gold mines in Cuzco. The Spaniards brought 500 Africans from Guinea as part of the troops for the Conquista by 1531. Slavery in Peru was abolished in 1854 by President Ramón Castilla. Today also mulatos (mixed African and European) and zambos (mixed African and Indigenous) constitute an important part of the population as well, especially in Piura, Tumbes, Lambayeque, Lima and Ica regions. The Afro-Peruvian population is concentrated mostly in coastal cities south of Lima, such as those found in the Ica Region, in cities like Cañete, Chincha, Ica, Nazca and Acarí in the border with the Arequipa Region. The African descendants brought their own dances and drumming music style, creating some instruments like the "Cajon" and some culinary art characterized by their delicious taste. Some of the best soccer players in Peru are Afro-descendants.
Relatively unmixed African populations exist in El Carmen en Chincha Alta Ica, Peru.
Another large Afro-Peruvian presence is in the Yunga regions (west and just below the Andean chain of northern Peru), (i.e., Piura and Lambayeque), where sugarcane, lemon, and mango production are still of importance. Important communities are found in the Morropón Province, such as in the city of Chulucanas. One of them is Yapatera, a community in the same city, as well as smaller farming communities like Pabur or La Matanza and even in the mountainous region near Canchaque. Further south, the colonial city of Zaña or farming towns like Capote and Tuman in Lambayeque are also important regions with Afro-Peruvian presence.
According to the 2017 census, 3-10% of the population identifies as having either Chinese or Japanese heritage. Peru has the largest population of Chinese descendants in Latin America since Peru became independent from Spain in 1821 and banned the import of slaves. The first group of Asians came in 1849 on the Danish ship named Federico Guillermo to replace slavery as part of the plan to abolish slavery in 1854 by replacing it with the Asian labor force. During the next 25 years, 100,000 Chinese arrived in Peru, hired in eight-year contracts from Macao, Hong Kong, Canton, and Fujian, including some Sangley people. They were hired for sugar cane fields, rice fields, extracting guano and constructing the railroads in the Andes in semi-slavery working conditions.