📰 Nicaragua · page 5

Every year about 60,000 U.S. citizens visit Nicaragua, primarily business people, tourists, and those visiting relatives.[239]384 Some 5,300 people from the U.S. reside in Nicaragua.385 The majority of tourists who visit Nicaragua are from the U.S., Central or South America, and Europe.386 According to the Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua (INTUR),[240] the colonial cities of León and Granada are the preferred spots for tourists.387 Also, the cities of Masaya, Rivas and the likes of San Juan del Sur, El Ostional, the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception, Ometepe Island, the Mombacho volcano, and the Corn Islands among other locations are the main tourist attractions.388 In addition, ecotourism, sport fishing and surfing attract many tourists to Nicaragua.389

According to the TV Noticias news program, the main attractions in Nicaragua for tourists are the beaches, the scenic routes, the architecture of cities such as León and Granada, ecotourism, and agritourism particularly in northern Nicaragua.[235]390 As a result of increased tourism, Nicaragua has seen its foreign direct investment increase by 79.1% from 2007 to 2009.[241]391

Nicaragua is referred to as "the land of lakes and volcanoes" due to the number of lagoons and lakes, and the chain of volcanoes that runs from the north to the south along the country's Pacific side.[29][30][242]392 Today, only 7 of the 50 volcanoes in Nicaragua are considered active.393 Many of these volcanoes offer some great possibilities for tourists with activities such as hiking, climbing, camping, and swimming in crater lakes.394

The Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve was created by the eruption of the Apoyo Volcano about 23,000 years ago, which left a huge 7 km-wide crater that gradually filled with water.395 It is surrounded by the old crater wall.[243]396 The rim of the lagoon is lined with restaurants, many of which have kayaks available.397 Besides exploring the forest around it, many water sports are practiced in the lagoon, most notably kayaking.[244]398

Sand skiing has become a popular attraction at the Cerro Negro volcano in León.399 Both dormant and active volcanoes can be climbed.400 Some of the most visited volcanoes include the Masaya Volcano, Momotombo, Mombacho, Cosigüina and Ometepe's Maderas and Concepción.401

Ecotourism aims to be ecologically and socially conscious; it focuses on local culture, wilderness, and adventure.402 Nicaragua's ecotourism is growing with every passing year.[245]403 It boasts a number of ecotourist tours and perfect places for adventurers.404 Nicaragua has three eco-regions (the Pacific, Central, and Atlantic) which contain volcanoes, tropical rainforests, and agricultural land.[246]405 The majority of the eco-lodges and other environmentally-focused touristic destinations are found on Ometepe Island,[247] located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua just an hour's boat ride from Granada.406 While some are foreign-owned, others are owned by local families.407

Demographics

Main article: Nicaraguans, Demographics of Nicaragua

• Population408
• Year; Pop.409
• 1850[248]; 300,000410
• 1950; 1,300,000411
• 2000; 5,000,000412
• 2021; 6,850,000413

According to a 2014 research published in the journal Genetics and Molecular Biology, European ancestry predominates in 69% of Nicaraguans, followed by African ancestry in 20%, and lastly indigenous ancestry in 11%.[249]414 A Japanese research of "Genomic Components in America's demography" demonstrated that, on average, the ancestry of Nicaraguans is 58–62% European, 28% Native Nicaraguan, and 14% African, with a very small Near Eastern contribution.[250]415

Non-genetic data from the CIA World Factbook establish that from Nicaragua's 2016 population of 5,966,798, around 69% are mestizo, 17% white, 5% Native Nicaraguan, and 9% black and other races.[15]416 This fluctuates with changes in migration patterns.417 The population is 58% urban as of 2013.[251]418

The capital Managua corpus is the biggest city, with an estimated population of 1,042,641 in 2016.[252]419 In 2005, over 5 million people lived in the Pacific, Central and North regions, and 700,000 in the Caribbean region.[253]420

There is a growing expatriate community,[254] the majority of whom move for business, investment or retirement from across the world, such as from the United States, Canada, Taiwan, and European countries; the majority have settled in Managua, Granada and San Juan del Sur.421

Many Nicaraguans live abroad, particularly in Costa Rica, the United States, Spain, Canada, and other Central American countries.[255]422

Nicaragua has a population growth rate of 1.5% as of 2013.[256]423 This is the result of one of the highest birth rates in the Western Hemisphere: 17.7 per 1,000 as of 2017.[257]424 The death rate was 4.7 per 1,000 during the same period according to the United Nations.[258]425

Ethnic groups

The majority of the Nicaraguan population is composed of mestizos, roughly 69%, while 17% of Nicaragua's population is white,[259] with the majority of them being of Spanish descent, while others are of German, Italian, English, Danish or French ancestry.426

Europeans

European immigration to Nicaragua began in 1524 when Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded the cities of León and Granada.427 From 1527 to 1821, Nicaragua was a province in the Captaincy General of Guatemala, thus most of the immigrants were from Spain corpus during this period.[260]428 In the late 19th century, the Nicaraguan government started to offer land to European immigrants from Germany and nearby countries in an attempt to promote their coffee industry.[261]429 The fincas were located mostly in rural Matagalpa and Jinotega departments, where the high altitudes are suitable for coffee production.430 These settlers eventually grew to be dominant with the majority of large fincas in these two departments owned by people with a foreign migration background by 1909.[261]431 People from other parts of Europe also settled in Nicaragua after independence, specifically people from Italy corpus, although they were concentrated in urban environments.432 Today, the majority of white and mestizo Nicaraguans are of Spanish descent, about 75% of the total European admixture.[262]433

Black Creoles

About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black and mainly resides on the country's Caribbean (or Atlantic) coast.434 The black population is mostly composed of black English-speaking Creoles who are the descendants of escaped or shipwrecked slaves; many carry the name of Scottish settlers who brought slaves with them, such as Campbell, Gordon, Downs, and Hodgson.435 Although many Creoles supported Somoza because of his close association with the United States, they rallied to the Sandinista cause in July 1979, only to reject the revolution soon afterwards in response to a new phase of "westernization" and imposition of central rule from Managua.[263]436 There is a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed West African, Carib and Arawak descent.437 In the mid-1980s, the government divided the Zelaya Department – consisting of the eastern half of the country – into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the republic.438

Indigenous population

The remaining 5% of Nicaraguans are indigenous, the descendants of the country's original inhabitants.439 Nicaragua's pre-Columbian population consisted of many indigenous groups.440 In the western region, the Nahuas (Nicarao people) were present along with other groups such as the Chorotega people and the Subtiabas (also known as Maribios or Hokan Xiu).441 The central region and the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua were inhabited by indigenous peoples who were Macro-Chibchan language groups that had migrated to and from South America in ancient times, primarily what is now Colombia corpus and Venezuela corpus.[264][265]442

These groups include the present-day Matagalpas, Miskitos, Ramas, as well as Mayangnas and Ulwas who are also known as Sumos.[266][55]443 In the 19th century, there was a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo majority.444 The Garifuna and Miskito Sambu are also present, mainly on the Caribbean Coast.445 They are of mixed African and Indigenous descent, also known as Zambos..[267]446

Immigration

Main article: Immigration to Nicaragua

• Country; Population447
• 1; 13,110448
• 2; 11,281449
• 3; 3,775450
• 4; 2,557451
• 5; 1,843452
• Source: Datos Macro (2020)[268]453

Relative to its population, Nicaragua has not experienced large waves of immigration.454 The number of immigrants in Nicaragua, from other Latin American countries or other countries, never surpassed 1% of its total population before 1995.455 The 2005 census showed the foreign-born population at 1.2%, having risen a mere 0.06% in 10 years.[253]456

In the 19th century, Nicaragua experienced modest waves of immigration from Europe.457 In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium immigrated to Nicaragua, particularly the departments in the Central and Pacific region.458

Also present is a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrians, Armenians, Jewish Nicaraguans, and Lebanese in Nicaragua.459 This community numbers about 30,000.460 There is an East Asian community mostly consisting of Chinese.461 The Chinese Nicaraguan population is estimated at 12,000.[269]462 The Chinese arrived in the late 19th century but were unsubstantiated until the 1920s.463

Diaspora

Main article: Nicaraguan diaspora

The Nicaraguan Revolution forced many Nicaraguans to start lives outside of their country.464 Many people emigrated during the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century due to the lack of employment opportunities and poverty.465 The majority of the Nicaraguan Diaspora migrated to the United States and Costa Rica corpus.466 Today one in six Nicaraguans live in these two countries.[270]467

The diaspora has seen Nicaraguans settling around in smaller communities in other parts of the world, particularly Western Europe.468 Small communities of Nicaraguans are found in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.469 Communities also exist in Australia and New Zealand.470 Canada, Brazil and Argentina host small groups of these communities.471 In Asia, Japan hosts a small Nicaraguan community.472

Due to extreme poverty at home, many Nicaraguans are now living and working in neighboring El Salvador corpus, a country that has the US dollar as its currency.[271][272]473

Languages

Main article: Languages of Nicaragua

Nicaraguan Spanish has many indigenous influences and several distinguishing characteristics.474 For example, some Nicaraguans have a tendency to replace /s/ with /h/ when speaking.475 Although Spanish is spoken throughout, the country has great variety: vocabulary, accents and colloquial language can vary between towns and departments.[273]476

Nicaraguan Sign Language emerged in the 1970s and 1980s among deaf children as the first special education schools brought them together, and its emergence became of particular interest to linguists as an opportunity to directly observe the creation of a language.[274][275][276]477

On the Caribbean coast, indigenous languages, English-based creoles, and Spanish are spoken.478 The Miskito language, spoken by the Miskito people as a first language and some other indigenous and Afro-descendants people as a second, third, or fourth language, is the most commonly spoken indigenous language.479 The indigenous Misumalpan languages of Mayangna and Ulwa are spoken by the respective peoples of the same names.480 Many Miskito, Mayangna, and Sumo people also speak Miskito Coast Creole, and a large majority also speak Spanish.481 Fewer than three dozen of nearly 2,000 Rama people speak their Chibchan language fluently, with nearly all Ramas speaking Rama Cay Creole and the vast majority speaking Spanish.482 Linguists have attempted to document and revitalize the language over the past three decades.[277]483

The Garifuna people, descendants of indigenous and Afro-descendant people who came to Nicaragua from Honduras in the early twentieth century, have recently attempted to revitalize their Arawakan language.484 The majority speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second.485 The Creole or Kriol people, descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Mosquito Coast during the British colonial period and European, Chinese, Arab, and British West Indian immigrants, also speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second.[278]486

Religion

Main article: Religion in Nicaragua

Religion plays a significant role in Nicaraguan culture and is afforded special protections in its constitution.487 Religious freedom (which has been guaranteed since 1939) and religious tolerance are officially promoted by the government, but, in recent years, the Catholic Church and the regime led by Daniel Ortega have been in open conflict.488 The latter has been accused of using the police to harass clergy (including bishops),[279] closing down Catholic media outlets, and arresting members of the clergy (including Bishop Rolando Alvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa).489

Nicaragua has no official state religion.490 Catholic bishops are expected to lend their authority to important state occasions, and their pronouncements on national issues are closely followed.491 They can be called upon to mediate between contending parties at moments of political crisis.[280]492 In 1979, Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, a priest who had embraced Liberation Theology, served in the government as foreign minister when the Sandinistas came to power.493 The largest denomination, and traditionally the religion of the majority, is the Catholic Church.494 It came to Nicaragua in the 16th century with the Spanish conquest and remained, until 1939, the established faith.495

The number of practicing Catholics has been declining, while membership of evangelical Protestant groups and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been growing rapidly since the 1990s.496 There is a significant LDS missionary effort in Nicaragua.497 There are two missions and 95,768 members of the LDS Church (1.54% of the population).[281]498 There are also strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast in what once constituted the sparsely populated Mosquito Coast colony.499 It was under British influence for nearly three centuries.500 Protestantism was brought to the Mosquito Coast mainly by British and German colonists in forms of Anglicanism and the Moravian Church.501 Other kinds of Protestant and other Christian denominations were introduced to the rest of Nicaragua during the 19th century.502