Central America is a subregion of the Americas formed by six Latin American countries and one (officially) Anglo-American country, Belize. As an isthmus it connects South America with the remainder of mainland North America, and comprises the following countries (from north to south): Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

The inhabitants of Central America represent a variety of ancestries, ethnic groups, and races, making the region one of the most diverse in the world. Biologically the whole population is the result of mixed Amerindian–European-African, although the cultural classification consist to self-identified as mestizo, while others trend to self-identified as European ancestry. Asian and mixed race Afro-Amerindian minorities are also identified regularly. People with mestizo ancestry are the largest single group, and along with people who claim having a greater European ancestry, comprise approximately 80% of the population, or even more.

In 2007, Central America had a population of approximately 40 million persons within an area of 523,780 km2, yielding an overall density of 77.3 inhabitants/km2 that is not distributed evenly. For example, Belize is larger than El Salvador in area by 1,924 km2, but El Salvador has 30 times the population of Belize. Similarly, the population of Panama is greater than that of Costa Rica, while Panama is greater in area. Guatemala has the largest population with 18.41 million, followed by Honduras 11.01 million.

Population and density Country or territory with flag Area(km2) (per sq mi) Population(July 2012 est.) Population densityper km2 Capital 14,099,032 Guatemala City 307,899 Belmopan 6,090,646 San Salvador 8,296,693 Tegucigalpa 5,727,707 Managua 4,636,348 San José 3,360,474 Panama City Total 77.3/km2

Mestizos

Central American Admixture began with the arrival of the Spaniards to Central America, whose consequences could still be perceived in the present-day Central American Society. During the colonial period, Mestizos were the result of the admixture between Spaniards and Native Americans (or Amerindians), although the scope of this admixture (including African presence) covered all citizens during next generations, potentially all population have Europeans, Amerindian and African ancestors.

Self-identified or classified Mestizos are the majority in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. formed by 22,425,257 inhabitants, occupying the majority of the Central American population, and all 7 countries have significant Mestizo populations.

The Mestizaje begins when Europeans arrived in the territory of Central America, due to the shortage of European women, European men intermarried with indigenous women. Mestizos used the third social group of the social pyramid of the Spanish, although in countries like Costa Rica and El Salvador, the mestizos were seen as the same group with the Criollos. For various reasons, such as the scarcity of indigenous populations, at this point of the history the majority of the population in Central America were biologically mixed. In El Salvador and Costa Rica, several future borns left the indigenous tribes; this did not happen in Guatemala or Honduras until the XVIII century. In Costa Rica, caste systems were implemented, which appeared different terms.

The country with the highest percentage of classified Mestizo population in the Central American Region is Honduras, with multitudes of Mestizo populations scattered throughout its territory. In El Salvador and Nicaragua the classified Mestizo population is the majority. In Costa Rica the classified mestizo population is the first ethnic minority, although according to the surveys it is seen as the same group with the people who identified themselves as Whites, the majority of the population is made up of whites/mestizos.

Amerindians

The only plurality of Amerindian, or indigenous, people in Central America is in Guatemala. Amerindians comprise minorities in the other Central American countries.

Before the arrival of the Spanish in Central America, there were an estimated 1.1 million people in Honduras, 800 thousand people in Guatemala, 450 thousand in Costa Rica, 325 thousand in Nicaragua, 196 thousand in Panama, 91 thousand in El Salvador and only 7 thousand in Belize.Population by Country in 1500 However, the numbers are highly variable, according to Bernardo Augusto Thiel, the indigenous population in Costa Rica was around 27,000, in El Salvador less than 100,000, in Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama 750,000 and more than a million in Guatemala. On the other hand, other historians give intermediate figures, more than a million in Guatemala and Honduras, 750 thousand in Nicaragua and Panama, 200,000 in El Salvador and 100,000 in Costa Rica.

The indigenous population had a significant decline due to diseases and hostility of the Spanish towards the indigenous, mainly in Costa Rica and El Salvador, which many people left their indigenous tribes at the beginning of colonial rule. The progressive unions between Europeans and Amerindians cause the loss of racial purity both inside the region and whole continent.

After independence, the indigenous population classified was very numerous, in Guatemala it represented 64%, around 30% of the populations of Honduras and Nicaragua, 20% in El Salvador and in Costa Rica 13% were classified as indigenous.

Guatemala

The classified Amerindian populations in Guatemala include the K'iche' 9.1%, Kaqchikel 8.4%, Mam 7.9% and Q'eqchi 6.3%. 8.6% of the population is "other Mayan," 0.4% is indigenous non-Mayan, making the indigenous community in Guatemala about 40.5% of the population.

Belize Roughly 10% of the population is self-identified as Amerindian, mostly Maya. Three Maya groups now inhabit the country: The Yucatec (who came from Yucatán, Mexico to escape the Caste War of the 1840s), the Mopan (indigenous to Belize but were forced out by the British; they returned from Guatemala to evade slavery in the 19th century), and Kekchi (also fled from slavery in Guatemala in the 19th century).Cho, Julian (1998). Maya Homeland. University of California Berkeley Geography Department and the Toledo Maya of Southern Belize. Retrieved 4 January 2007. The later groups are chiefly found in the Toledo District.

Panama

According to the 2010 census in Panama, approximately 12.3% of the nation's population identified themselves as indigenous. The Amerindian population figure stood at 417,500 individuals in 2010.

Honduras

About 7% of the Honduran population are members of one of the seven recognized indigenous groups, most of them are from Lenca, Chorti, and Tolupan origin.

Nicaragua

5% of Nicaraguans are classified as Amerindians, the unmixed descendants of the country's indigenous inhabitants. Nicaragua's pre-Columbian population consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region the Nicarao people, a Nahua group after whom the country is named, were present along with other Mesoamerican groups such as the Chorotegas and the Subtiabas who are Otomanguean-speaking. The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua was inhabited by indigenous peoples who were mostly Chibchan-speaking groups that had migrated from South America, primarily present day Colombia and Venezuela. These groups include the Miskitos, Ramas and Sumos. In the 19th century, there was a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was also largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo majority.

Costa Rica

There are over 104,000 classified Amerindian inhabitants, comprising 2.4% of the Costa Rican population. Most of them live in secluded reservations, distributed among eight ethnic groups: Quitirrisí (in the Central Valley), Matambú or Chorotega (Guanacaste), Maleku (northern Alajuela), Bribri (southern Atlantic), Cabécar (Cordillera de Talamanca), Guaymí (southern Costa Rica, along the Panamá border), Boruca (southern Costa Rica) and Térraba (southern Costa Rica).

El Salvador

Only 1% of the Salvadoran population consider themselves as indigenous in the census, mostly Pipil, Lenca and Kakawira (Cacaopera). The current low numbers of indigenous people may be partly explained by mass murders by European colonizers. They wanted to exterminate the indigenous race and other tribes in Central America. Today many Pipil and other Indigenous populations live in small towns of El Salvador like Izalco, Panchimalco, Sacacoyo, and Nahuizalco. Country Percentage Indigenouspop. 40.5 6,976,989 10.6 32,495 1.0 60,906 7.0 545,499 5.0 294,559 2.4 104,000 12.3 417,500 Total

Europeans

The first contact of Europeans with Central America occurred in 1502, during the fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus, who sailed the Caribbean coasts of present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

After the conquest of the native population, the Spanish established a caste system in which they and their descendants occupied the upper part of the social pyramid. Being the peninsular who had the right to high political, religious and military positions. It is for this reason that it was the White settler population who started the independence movements at the beginning of the 19th century.

When Central America became independent in El Salvador they were more than 10% classified in the census. In Costa Rica they were more than 9%, Guatemala and Nicaragua they represented 5%. In Honduras were classified less than 3%.

Liberal reforms began in 1870 in Central America, being successful in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, this attracted thousands of immigrants, mainly Italian, German and Spanish.https://archive.org/details/inmigracion-europea-en-centroamerica-despues-de-la-colonia

The construction of large infrastructure works such as the Panama Canal or the Atlantic Railroad in Costa Rica, demanded the entry of thousands of Spanish, Italian and Greek workers.

Germans also arrived in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to dedicate themselves to agricultural activities, In Costa Rica and El Salvador, the entry of hundreds of thousands of Italians in the first decades of the 20th century was one of the most important movements that had demographic weight.

During World War I and World War II, thousands of Jews, mainly from Germany and Poland, entered the Region Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala were the ones that received the most.

Currently Costa Rica has the highest percentage of people classified as Euro-Latino or white origin, followed by Nicaragua and El Salvador, however there are also significant populations classified in the other Central American nations.

Costa Rica , most Costa Ricans are primarily of Spanish ancestry. Many also have German, Italian, French, Dutch, British, Swedish, and Greek ancestry. Whites and mestizos together are classified at 83% of the population.Costa Rica. State.gov (2012-04-09). Retrieved 2012-05-19. European migrants used Costa Rica to get across the isthmus of Central America as well to reach the Californian coast in the late-19th and early-20th centuries prior to the opening of the Panama Canal. Other European ethnic groups known to live in Costa Rica include Russians, Danes, Belgians, Portuguese, Croats, and Hungarians.

Nicaragua 17% of Nicaraguans are classified as white, mostly of German and Spanish descent, resulting in Nicaragua having one of the largest white populations in Central America. During the mid-19th century and early-20th century immigration was encouraged by the government giving land in areas of Esteli, Jinotega, Matagalpa, Managua-El Crucero, Carazo, Nueva Segovia and Madriz, mainly to German, but also French and Eastern European immigrants who were willing to work the land. In addition Nicaragua has the second largest Russian diaspora in Central America after Guatemala."Guatemala, un futuro próximo". Edition: IEPALA. Place: Madrid, España. . Year: 1980. P: 61, 66. El Salvador