Uruguay

Uruguay

POPULATION 3,386,575
ROMAN CATHOLIC 64.8 percent
ATHEIST 6.3 percent
PROTESTANT 3.3 percent
JEWISH 1.2 percent
OTHER AND NONAFFILIATED 24.4 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Oriental Republic of Uruguay, on the Atlantic Coast of South America, borders Brazil and Argentina. It is made up mainly of lowlands, and its economy has historically been based on export-led agriculture, primarily beef and leather.

With the highest rates of urbanization (92 percent, with half the population concentrated in the port city of Montevideo) and literacy (98 percent) of all the major Latin American countries, Uruguay's demographics resemble those of many European nations. Roughly 88 percent of the population is Caucasian, of primarily Spanish, French, and Italian descent. The remaining citizens are of African origin (4 percent) or of mixed race (8 percent). At the time of European settlement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the region was populated sparsely by a seminomadic indigenous tribe known as the Charrua. The colonizers killed off many of the Charrua; others were forcibly absorbed into the European population, leaving no significant indigenous population today.

Both Portugal and Spain laid claim to the territory at different times between 1521 and 1816. Argentina (independent after 1816) and Brazil (independent in 1822) continued to fight for control over Uruguay.

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