Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/873

 AREA. AND POPULATION— RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BfN

Area and Population.

The area of Ecuador is about 116,000 square miles, but the frontiers have not been settled, so that estimates of the area vary. Ecuador is said to have more boundaries than any other country, and there are maps of the Republic showing six different frontiers according to six different opinions. The country is divided into fifteen provinces, one territory — " El Oriente " — and the Archipelago of Galapagos — officially called " Cfclon." The bulk of the population is Indian; inhabitants of pure European blood are few ; those of mixed blood are estimated at about 400,000. Included in the above statement are the Galapagos or Tortoise Islands, with an area of 2, 400 square miles, and a population of about 400.

Ecuador still has a boundary dispute with Peru. That with Colombia was settled by Treaty in 1917.

The population oi the Republic (1903) was distributed as follows among the provinces (capitals in brackets) : —

ProTine««

Azuay {Cuenca) Bolivar (Guaranda) CaBar (Azogues) Carchi (Tulcan) Chimborazo (Riobamba) Esmeraldas (Esmeraldas) Colon 1 (San Cristobal) . Guayas (Guayaquil) Imbabura (Ibarra) . Leon (Latacunga).

Population

132,400 43.000 64.000 36,000

122.000

14,600

400

150,000 68,000

109,600

Provinces

Loja (Loja). M&nabi (Puertoviejo) Oriente* (Archidona) Oro (Machala) Pichincha (Quito) Los Rios (Babahoyo) Tungurahua (Ambato)

Total.

Population

66,000 64,100 80,000 32,600

205,000 32,800

103,000

1,323,590

1 Galapagos Island*, not a province.

I Territory.

In November, 1919, a Bill was before Congress for the sale of the Gala- pagos Islands.

Estimated population 1915 : 2,000,000.

The chief towns are the capital, Quito (70,000), Guayaquil (93.S51 in 1919), Cuenca (50,000), Riobamba (18,000), Ambato, Loja, and Latacunga (each about 10,000), Bahia (8,000), Esmeraldas (4,000).

In 1917 there were 74,386 births, 10,016 marriages and 41,531 deaths. Increase of births over deaths, 32,855.

Religion and Instruction.

According to the Constitution the State recognises no religion, but grants freedom of worship to all. The Catholic Church has one archbishop (Quito) and six suffragan bishops. Its income, in substitution for tithes, is annually provided for in the estimates. All members of the Episcopate are required to be Ecuadorian citizens. Civil marriages are obligatory in accordance with regulations prescribed by law of December, 1902.

Public instruction was organised in 1897 and improved in 1912. Primary education is gratuitous and obligatory. Higher education is carried on in the Central University at Quito (founded "in the eighteenth century by the Dominicans), which has the faculties of medicine, pharmacy, science, and law ; at the Guaya3 University, in Guayaquil, and at the Azuav University, in Cuenca*. The two latter have faculties of medicine,