Draft first regional report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development

Chapter III
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
Table III.9
Latin America (17 countries): inclusion of Afrodescendent (self-)identification in censuses,
household surveys and vital statistics
Afrodescendent self-identification
Country
Population and
housing censuses
(last two)
Agricultural
censuses
Demographic and
Health Surveys and
Multiple Indicator Cluster
Surveys (around 2010
and latest available)
Household surveys
(employment, income
and the like) (around
2010 and latest available)
Vital statistics a
Deaths
Births
Argentina 2010
Bolivia (Plurinational
State of)
2012 2013 2011, 2015
Brazil 2000, 2010 2006 2011, 2015 X
Colombia 2005, 2018 2014 2010, 2015 2007, 2015 X X
Costa Rica 2000, 2011 2014 2011 b
Cuba 2002, 2012
Ecuador 2001, 2010 2012 2010, 2015 X X
El Salvador 2007 2014
Guatemala 2002 c , 2018 c c c c
Honduras 2001, 2013 2011-2012 b X
Mexico 2015 d
Nicaragua 2005 2011 2011 b X X
Panama 2010 2015
Paraguay 2012
Peru 2017 2012, 2016
Uruguay 2011 2013 2010, 2016
Venezuela (Bolivarian
Republic of)
2011
Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of F. del Popolo and S. Schkolnik, “Pueblos indígenas y afrodescendientes
en los censos 2010 de América Latina: avances y desafíos en el derecho a la información”, Notas de Población, No. 97 (LC/G.2598-P), Santiago, ECLAC, 2013;
ECLAC, Los pueblos indígenas en América Latina: avances en el último decenio y retos pendientes para la garantía de sus derechos (LC/L.3902), Santiago, 2014;
and L. Márquez, A. Plana and M. C. Villarroel, “Mortalidad materna en pueblos indígenas y fuentes de datos: alcances y desafíos para su medición en países
de América Latina”, Population and Development series, No. 118 (LC/TS.2017/68), Santiago, ECLAC, 2017.
a
Self-identification does not apply. In the case of deaths, the ethnic declaration made by the informant is relied on. In the case of births, the ethnicity of newborn children
in Colombia is as declared by the parents, while in Ecuador, Guatemala (where only the Garífuna people is identified) and Nicaragua the mother’s self-identification
is taken.
b
Three countries included Afrodescendent self-identification in household surveys at some time in the 2000s: Costa Rica (2002), Honduras (2004) and Nicaragua (2005).
c
Guatemala identifies the Garífuna people in Demographic and Health Surveys, living conditions surveys and vital statistics. However, there are also non-Garífuna
Afrodescendent groups.
d
This is the 2015 Intercensal Survey.
The <strong>regional</strong> picture looks less encouraging where other data sources are concerned, since the deficiencies
are even greater than in the case of indigenous peoples (see table III.8 of section III.H). Where employment,
income and living conditions surveys are concerned, leaving aside the procedures applied in each case, only
eight countries included Afrodescendent self-identification at least once during that decade, and only nine
did so in the case of Demographic and Health Surveys (with Guatemala only identifying the Garífuna people).
In the case of agricultural censuses, some countries identify whether the production unit belongs to an
Afrodescendent community; alternatively (or additionally), others ask whether the producer and members of
his or her household identify as Afrodescendants. Whatever the procedure, the universe consists of just four
countries, while in the case of vital statistics, just six countries include Afrodescendent self-identification in
records of deaths and four in records of births.
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