Ah! Nicaragua - Nicaragua General information.

People

Most Nicaraguans have both European and Indian ancestry, and the culture of the country reflects the Ibero-European and Indian heritage of its people. Only the Indians of the eastern half of the country remain ethnically distinct and retain tribal customs and languages. A large black minority (of Jamaican origin) is concentrated on the Caribbean coast. The overall population of Nicaragua is 4,717,132, and Spanish is the official language.

In the mid-1980s, the central government divided the eastern half of the country, the former department of Zelaya, into two autonomous regions by granting the people of each region limited self-rule. The 1995 constitutional reform guaranteed the integrity of the regions' several unique cultures, and gave the inhabitants a say in the use of the area's natural resources.

Roman Catholicism is the major religion, but evangelical Protestant groups have grown recently, and there are strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast. Most Nicaraguans live in the Pacific lowlands and the adjacent interior highlands. The population is 54 percent urban.

According to World Health Organization figures of June 2000, Nicaragua’s infant mortality rate was 40.47 deaths per 1,000 live births. The life expectancy at birth for the total population was estimated to be 58.1 years; 56.4 years for males and 59.9 years for females. In terms of the literacy rate, defined as the percentage of those age 15 and over who can read and write, Nicaragua’s total population in 1995 was estimated to be 65.7 percent literate.