Guatemalans

Guatemalans (Spanish: guatemaltecos or less commonly guatemalenses) are people connected to the country of Guatemala. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Guatemalans, several (if not all) of these connections exist.

Guatemala is a multicultural society, though most Guatemalans have varying degrees of European (predominantly Spaniard) and Amerindian ancestry. Guatemalans are also colloquially nicknamed chapines in other Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America.

Guatemala has a population of 17,153,288 (July 2020 est). In 1900, Guatemala had a population of 885,000. Guatemala had the fastest population growth in the Western Hemisphere during 20th century. Approximately half of the Guatemalan population lives in poverty and 13.7% of them live in extreme poverty.

Guatemala is heavily centralized. Transportation, communications, business, politics, and the most relevant urban activity takes place in Guatemala City. Guatemala City has about 2 million inhabitants within the city limits and more than 5 million within the wider urban area. This is a significant percentage of the population (14 million).

The estimated median age in Guatemala is 20 years old, 19.4 for males and 20.7 years for females. This is the lowest median age of any country in the Western Hemisphere and comparable to most of central Africa and Iraq.

According to the 2018 Census, about 56.57% of the population identifies as non-indigenous. The majority, or 56.01% are Ladinos, those include Mestizos, people mixed European with Amerindian, another part but visible are Whites of European descent, specially Spanish, German and Italian, (in Colonia Era, direct descendants of Spanish were called as Criollo). The Amerindian populations as of 2002 Census include the K'iche' 9.1%, Q'eqchi 8.4%, Kaqchikel 7.9%, Mam 6.3% and 8.6% of the population is "other Mayan", 0.4% is indigenous non-Mayan, making the indigenous community in Guatemala about 40.3% of the population.

There are smaller communities present, including about 15,000 Salvadorans. The Garífuna, who are descended primarily from Africans who lived with and intermarried with indigenous peoples from St. Vincent, live mainly in Livingston and Puerto Barrios. Those communities have other blacks and mulattos descended from the Spanish Slave Trade. There are also Asians, mostly of Chinese descent. Other Asian groups include Arabs of Lebanese and Syrian descent. There is also a growing Korean community in Guatemala City and in nearby Mixco, currently numbering about 6,000. Guatemala's German population is credited with bringing the tradition of a Christmas tree to the country.

Guatemalan mestizos are people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry. They may also have varying degrees of African or Asian ancestry. Mixed Guatemalans could reach 60% with people of different grades of mixture, but the culture environment into different communities can influence people to identify as Indigenous, Ladino or White. The mestizo population in Guatemala is concentrated in urban areas of the country (the national capital and departmental capitals). Genetic testing indicates that Guatemalan Mestizos are on average of predominantly indigenous ancestry.