The census results found that there were 90,000 additional deaths in Ecuador between 2010 and 2022, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic but also to the wave of violence plaguing the country.
In 2010, the Ecuadorian Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) had predicted 1.7 million deaths by 2020, when the next census was due to take place, but the pandemic changed everything.
COVID-19 not only forced the postponement of the trial, which eventually began in October 2022 and lasted until January of this year, but also killed a significant percentage of the population. The state recognizes about 36,000 confirmed to probable deaths from the coronavirus but has faced warnings about under-reporting since the start of the pandemic.
On the other hand, there are the murders. There were 2,400 violent deaths in 2021 and around 4,800 cases were recorded in 2022. This census could hardly take into account the numbers of respondents in January 2023. And this year the number of murders already exceeds the global number in 2022.
“We are facing excessive violent deaths,” admitted Roberto Castillo, director of the Ecuadorian Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), this Thursday, September 21st.
The security crisis that Ecuador is experiencing, which erupted in 2021, has caused the country to increase from 5.8 to 25.32 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in the last five years, the highest level since records began.
Castillo mentioned that 248,545 households reported that at least one person died in their core area in the last three years.
16.9 million Ecuadorians
According to the results of the last census, Ecuador’s population amounted to around 17 million people in 2022, indicating a slowdown in population growth.
The study conducted by INEC revealed that the Ecuadorian population is 16,938,986 inhabitants, of which 51.3% are women (8,686,463) and 48.7% are men (8,252,523).
This number represents about 2.5 million more people than the previous census in 2010.
