Population characteristics

It is impossible to present an adequately true picture of the population of Latin-American countries. In some countries censuses have been taken within a relatively recent period, but in others no census has been taken for many years. Ecuador has never had a census. Moreover, even among the countries with a relatively recent census, there is not one that has a long series of periodical censuses. Consequently, the only way of determining the population of the whole of Latin America at one particular date is to resort to estimates. The reliability of such estimates is variable from country to country. They are highly questionable for Bolivia, Uruguay, and Haiti, which have very old and inaccurate censuses, and they have very little value for Ecuador, the population history of which is unknown. Even for countries with a relatively long history of occasional censuses and with recent population count, the completeness of enumeration may vary from one census date to the next, and current estimates may be misleading.