POPULATION 5,884,491
ROMAN CATHOLIC 89.5 percent
PROTESTANT 6.0 percent
OTHER 2.0 percent
NONRELIGIOUS 2.5 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Republic of Paraguay, located in South America, is a landlocked country of 157,048 square miles (406,752 square kilometers). It is bordered by Bolivia to the north and northwest; Argentina to the south, southeast, and west; and Brazil to the northeast and east.

Spanish conquistador Juan de Salazar and his company of soldiers and colonists founded Fort Asunción in 1537 as part of a campaign to subdue and colonize an estimated 200,000 Amerindians, principally the Tupi-Guaraní. Within 20 years of its founding, Asunción boasted a Spanish population of 1,500, a Roman Catholic cathedral, a textile mill, and the beginning of the livestock industry. For more than two centuries Asunción was a principal center of Spanish influence in the Río de la Plata basin.

In 1811 Paraguay declared its independence from Spain and from the newly independent government in...