Indigenous peoples in Colombia
Indigenous peoples of Colombia are the ethnic groups who have inhabited Colombia since before the Spanish colonization of Colombia, in the early 16th century.
Arhuaco Amerindians in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,905,617 (2018 Census) 4.31% of Colombia's population c. 5,000,000 – c. 5,400,000 (Estimation) 9.5% – 10.4% of Colombia’s population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Throughout the country, especially in Andean Highlands, Caribbean Region and Amazonía Region | |
| Languages | |
| Indigenous languages and Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism, Native American religions |
Estimates on the percentage of Colombians who are indigenous vary, from 3% or 1.5 million to 10% or 5 million. According to the 2018 Colombian census, they comprise 4.4% of the country's population, belonging to 115 different tribes, up from 3.4% in the 2005 Colombian census. However, a Latinobarómetro survey from the same year found that 10.4% of Colombian respondents self-identified as indigenous. The most recent estimation of the number of indigenous peoples of Colombia places it at around 9.5% of the population and has been growing since an all-time low of 1965, where it was estimated only 1% of Colombians were indigenous. The 2023 estimate indicates Colombia as having the seventh highest percentage of Amerindians in the Americas with only Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and Panama having a higher estimated percentage of Amerindians than Colombia.
Approximately two thirds of the registered Indigenous peoples live in La Guajira, Cauca, Nariño, Córdoba and Sucre Departments. Amazon Basin, a sparsely populated region, is home to over 70 different Indigenous ethnic groups.
Both historically and in recent times, they have been subjected to violence and oppression, ranging from land theft to massacres to the targeted killings of Indigenous activists and politicians.