El Salvador Population 2017

El Salvador has an estimated 2015 population of 6.42 million, up from the most recent census figure of 5.74 million in 2009. El Salvador has a population density of 342 people per square kilometer (885/square mile), which ranks 47th in the world.

The capital and largest city is San Salvador, with a city population of 568,000 and a metropolitan population of 2.4 million. San Salvador has the second-largest Jewish population in Central America.

El Salvador Demographics

El Salvador is comprised mostly of mestizos (people of European and Native American ancestry), whites and indigenous peoples, with 88% of the population claiming mixed ancestry. The mestizo population is mostly of Mediterranean descent, Afro-Salvadoran and Native Indigenous.

12% of the population is of Spanish descent, with small populations of German, Swiss, English, Irish, Italian and Danish ethnicity throughout the country. Only 1% of the country's population is completely indigenous, in part due to mass murders in 1932 during the Salvadoran peasant uprising. This is the only Central American country without a visible African population due to racial intermixing during its colonial days.

The largest city and capital, San Salvador, is home to 2.1 million people, but 42% of the country's population is rural. There are also 3.2 million Salvadorans living outside the country, particularly in the United States.

El Salvador Population Growth

El Salvador's population is believed to be on a modest upward trend, but the country has not had reliable census information since 2009. El Salvador is projected to hit a population of 6.6 million by 2020.