Arequipa
Demographics

According to the 2007 census, 70% of the Department of Arequipa's total population and 90% of its urban population lives in Arequipa city proper. The city is the second most populous in Peru after the capital, Lima.

In an early census in 1796, Arequipa had a population of 37,241, of which 22,207 (59.6%) were Spaniards, 5,929 (15.9%) were Native Americans, 4,908 (13.2%) were mestizos, 2,487 (6.7%) were castizos, and 1,710 (4.6%) were Africans. Population growth accelerated from 1.1% growth between 1876 and 1917 to 3.3% growth between 1940 and 1960.

The city's population increased from 80,000 in 1940 to 158,000 in 1961. An earthquake in 1958 and a drought in the Altiplano caused a rise in migration, urbanization, and peripheral city growth (suburbs and shantytowns) that continues to this day. The rearrangement and improvement of urban space after the earthquakes also helped cause Arequipa's population to grow twofold in a decade. The population increased from 158,000 in 1961 to 309,000 in 1972 to almost 500,000 in 1983. Urban development of previously rural areas incorporated subsistence farming into the urban way of life.

Evolution of the population of Arequipa in the period between 1796 and 2017

Sources: Population Census 1804 (Gil de Toboada) Viceroyalty of Peru in 1812, Census of inhabitants of Peru (1876), Census of the City of Arequipa in 1917 INEI, INEI 2012 population estimate
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