Venezuela: SOCIETY

Population: In mid-2004 Venezuela’s estimated population totaled 26.2 million; the estimated population growth rate was 1.9 percent; and the population was projected to reach 35.3 million in 2025 and 41.7 million in 2050. The last five-year national census was conducted in 2001, when the population was estimated at 23.2 million. Venezuela’s population density is low. The country had 25.5 people per square kilometer in 2004, with 93 percent of the population living in urban centers and 7 percent in rural areas. Population density is greatest near the coast, the area with the lowest rainfall average in the country and the most available transportation routes; it is lowest in the south. In July 2004, Venezuela’s net migration rate was an estimated –0.04 migrant(s) per 1,000 population.

Demography: According to 2004 estimates, the country’s demographic profile was as follows: the age category of 0 to 14 years constituted 30.5 percent of the population (male 3,930,413; female 3,687,744); 15 to 64 years, 64.5 percent (male 8,107,382; female 8,034,905); and 65 years and older, 5 percent (male 571,289; female 685,654). The 2001 census figures varied only slightly from these estimates: 0 to 14 years: 33.1 percent; 15 to 64 years, 62.0 percent; and 65 years and older, 4.9 percent. Also according to 2004 estimates, the sex ratio at birth was 1.08 male(s) per female; less than 15 years of age, 1.07 male(s) per female; 15 to 64 years, 1.01 male(s) per female; 65 years and older, 0.83 male(s) per female; and the total population, 1.02 male(s) per females. The total median age was 25.2 years (male: 24.6; female: 25.8). The total fertility rate was 2.3 children born per woman, and the birthrate was 24 births per 1,000 population. Infant mortality totaled 23 deaths per 1,000 live births (26.2 deaths per 1,000 live births for males and 19.6 deaths per 1,000 live births for females). The death rate was an estimated 4.9 deaths per 1,000 population. Life expectancy at birth for the total population was 74.1 years (male, 71.0 years; female, 77.3 years).

Ethnic Groups and Languages: Venezuela’s population includes inhabitants of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arab, German, and African ancestry, as well as indigenous peoples. Although not classified by the 2001 census, an estimated 67 percent of the population is mestizo (mixed race); 21 percent, Caucasian; 10 percent, black; and 2 percent, indigenous. Venezuela’s largest expatriate community (a minimum of 1.6 million) consists of Colombians. In 2004 estimates of the number of Colombians residing in Venezuela were as high as 4 million, of whom more than three-fourths were illegal. About 200,000 Amerindians in the remote interior speak Indian dialects. Spanish is the official language.

Religion: For centuries, Roman Catholicism was the country’s official religion. The percentage of Venezuelans who are still nominally Roman Catholic is estimated to be as high as 96, with the remaining 4 percent belonging to various Protestant denominations (2 percent) or other religions (2 percent). However, the official Venezuelan government Web site puts the figure at 92 percent, with 8 percent belonging to other religions.

Education and Literacy: Of Venezuelans age 15 and older, 93.4 percent can read and write, one of the highest literacy rates in the region. The literacy rate in 2003 was estimated to be 93.8 percent for males and 93.1 percent for females. Although the Venezuelan education system is overextended and underfunded, the Venezuelan government remains committed to the idea that every citizen is entitled to a free education. Nine years of education are compulsory. The school year extends from February until November. The student population and the education budget have increased, but many children do not attend school because they are undocumented aliens or because of poverty. An estimated 20 percent of the population is without any formal education. The Ministry of Education’s efforts are aimed at adapting the curriculum to the demands of an increasingly technological society, expanding compulsory education, and upgrading teacher qualifications.

Venezuela has more than 90 institutions of higher education, with more than 6 million students. Higher education remains free under the 1999 constitution and was receiving 35 percent of the education budget, even though it accounted for only 11 percent of the student population. More than 70 percent of higher-education students come from the wealthiest quintile of the population. In 2003 the Chávez government withheld funding from the country's universities in an alleged attempt, according to rectors of those institutions, to punish them. (All of the major public university rectors were elected on antigovernment platforms.) In July 2003, the government established the Bolivarian University while withholding budgeted funds to many of the existing universities.

Health: Extensive inoculation programs and the availability of low- or no-cost health care provided by the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security have made Venezuela's health care infrastructure one of the more advanced in Latin America. Once the most comprehensive and well funded in the region, the health care system has deteriorated sharply since the 1980s. Government expenditures on health care constituted an estimated 4.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2002. Total health expenditures per capita in 2001 totaled US$386. Per capita government expenditures on health in 2001 totaled US$240. State hospitals are inefficient, crowded, underfunded, and poorly maintained. Private hospitals and clinics and the qualifications of their medical personnel are comparable to U.S. standards. Private health services are costly and largely unregulated.

During the 1995–99 period, the mortality rate by broad groups of causes per 100,000 population was 162.3 for diseases of the circulatory system, 63.8 for malignant neoplasms, 55.3 for external causes, 53.6 for communicable diseases, and 22.4 for certain conditions originating before birth. Several transmissible diseases, including dengue fever, malaria, measles, and tuberculosis, have reappeared in recent years. In August 2001, President Chávez announced a national campaign to fight the dengue fever epidemic that had infected 24,000 and killed four. Child immunization for measles in 2002 (as a percentage of under 12 months) was 78 percent, as compared with 84 percent in 1999. In 1999 an estimated 62,000 Venezuelans were living with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS); and in 2001 an estimated 2,000 people died from AIDS. At the end of 2003, the percentage of the population between the ages of 15 to 49 with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS was 0.7. In 2000, 85 percent of the urban population and 70 percent of the rural population had access to improved water. Improved sanitation was available to 71 percent of the urban population and 48 percent of the rural population.

Welfare: Although Venezuela’s mandatory public social security system is designed to provide retirement, survivorship, and disability benefits, these benefits are meager as a result of widespread corruption, mismanagement, and the country’s poor economic performance. Many retirement “savings funds” are managed by the major banks or by private companies. Venezuelan Petroleum and the armed forces run the largest non-bank-managed pension funds. President Chávez’s three main “social justice” objectives are to guarantee social rights in a universal and equitable way, improve the distribution of income and wealth, and strengthen social participation and generate citizen power in public decision-making.

In late 2003, President Chávez committed his government to funding US$1 billion in new social programs. High oil prices throughout 2004 aided funding for this expansion. Serious social problems include widespread poverty, income inequality, and criminal violence. As inequality has worsened, the poor have suffered disproportionately. In 2003–4, 86 percent of the population was living in general poverty, as compared with 1989, when 66.5 percent of the population was living in poverty and 29.6 percent in extreme poverty. These high rates result primarily from lower real wages earned by employees and high rates of unemployment and underemployment. Violence and discrimination against women, abuse of children, discrimination against people with disabilities, and inadequate protection of the rights of indigenous people also are problems. Child labor has increased as economic conditions have worsened. Trafficking in persons also is a problem, although the government has taken steps to reduce corruption among immigration authorities.

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