The INEC estimates that the real population figure shown by the 2022 Census is around 17.5 million inhabitants, since there was a drop in the birth rate.
Nurses care for newborn children at the Luz Elena Arismendi Hospital, in Quito, on March 20, 2023.
The number of births in Ecuador was lower than expected since 2010. That is one of the first findings of the 2022 Population and Housing Census, the results of which will be released on September 21, 2023.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), projections were that between 2010 and 2022, 4.3 million children would be born, but that figure only reached 3.7 million. This means that there was an overestimation of around 600,000 births.
The director of the INEC, Roberto Castillo, maintains that these figures will impact the real population of Ecuador.
With the results of the 2010 Population and Housing Census, INEC technicians calculated that by 2022 the Ecuadorian population would be about 18 million inhabitants.
After processing the data from the 2022 census, the INEC confirmed that this will not be the case and that the population will be around 17 or 17.5 million inhabitants. Although the official number has not yet been revealed.
What is clear is that there are three unforeseen factors that have occurred in Ecuador since 2010 and that have influenced the final results.
The main one is the drop in the birth rate, but also that there were an unusual number of deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic.
While a third factor is that in recent years Ecuador has suffered a significant increase in emigration.
