The history of Uruguay comprises different periods: the pre-Columbian time or early history, the Colonial Period (1516–1811), the Period of Nation-Building (1811–1830), and the history of Uruguay as an independent country (1830–present).
This is a demography of the population of Uruguay including population density, ethnicity, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Montevideo is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 in an area of 201 square kilometers (78 sq mi). Montevideo is situated on the southern coast of the country, on the northeastern bank of the Río de la Plata.
The Basque diaspora is the name given to describe people of Basque origin living outside their traditional homeland on the borders between Spain and France. Many Basques have left the Basque Country for other parts of the globe for economic and political reasons, with a substantial population in Chile and Colombia.
Montevideo is a department (departamento) of Uruguay. It is by far the smallest department in area, but also by far the most populated. Its capital is the city of Montevideo, which is also the national capital. While most of the department is covered by the capital city, there are still smaller towns within its limits.
In Hispanic America, criollo is a term used originally to describe people of full Spanish descent born in the viceroyalties. In different Latin American countries, the word has come to have different meanings, mostly referring to the local-born majority. Historically, they have been misportrayed as a social class in the hierarchy of the overseas colonies established by Spain beginning in the 16th century, especially in Hispanic America. They were locally-born people–almost always of Spanish ancestry, but also sometimes of other European ethnic backgrounds.
Spanish Argentines are Argentine-born citizens who are predominantly or totally of Spanish descent. The arrival of Spanish emigrants in Argentina took place first in the period before Argentina's independence from Spain, and again in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the Spanish Empire was the sole colonial power in the territories that became Argentina after the 1816 Argentine declaration of independence. Thus, before 1850, the vast majority of European settlers in Argentina were from Spain and they carried the Spanish colonial administration, including religious affairs, government, and commercial business. A substantial Spanish descended Criollo population gradually built up in the new cities, while some mixed with the amerindians (Mestizos), with the slave population sub-saharan descended (Mulattoes) or with other European immigrants. Currently, a large part of Argentines can be considered Criollos or Castizos.
Spanish Mexicans are citizens or residents of Mexico who identify as Spanish as a result of nationality or recent ancestry. Spanish immigration to Mexico began in the early 1500s and spans to the present day. The vast majority of Mexicans have at least partial Spanish ancestry; the Northern regions of Mexico have a higher prevalence of Spanish heritage. There are three recognized large-scale Spanish immigration waves to the territory which is now Mexico: the first arrived during the colonial period, the second during the Porfiriato and the third after the Spanish Civil War.
Italian Uruguayans are Uruguayan-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Uruguay during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Uruguay.
Many Basques arrived in Chile in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th century from their homeland in northern Spain and parts of southwestern France, as conquistadors, soldiers, sailors, merchants, priests and labourers. Due to their traditional hard work and entrepreneurship, many of them rose to the top of the social scale and intermarried into the Chilean elites of Castilian descent, giving birth to the new Basque-Chilean aristocracy in Chile. This union is the basis of the Chilean elite of today. But also, they immensely contributed to the ethnic make up of the bulk of the Chilean population. The Basque settlers also intermarried into the Mestizo and Castizo population of central Chile in the middle of the colonial period to form the large Criollo population that exists in Chile today; Castizos create modern middle and lower classes. Many years after the first waves of settlers, thousands of Basque refugees fleeing Spanish Civil War in 1939 also settled and have many descendants in the country and have even intermarried with Spanish ethnic groups other than Castilians, and other European ethnic groups. An estimated 1.6 million (10%) to 5 million (30%) Chileans have a surname of Basque origin. This figure is to the least as the number of Basque descendence is great and plentiful. Due to Basque migration, Chile has a higher number of people of Basque descent than the Basque Country itself.
Venezuelans are the citizens identified with the country of Venezuela. This connection may be through citizenship, descent or cultural. For most Venezuelans, many or all of these connections exist and are the source of their Venezuelan citizenship or their bond to Venezuela.
Spain–Uruguay relations are the current and historical relations between Spain and Uruguay. There is community of 67,000 Spanish nationals residing in Uruguay and 33,000 Uruguayan nationals residing in Spain. Both nations are members of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.
There are about 53,000 to 75,000 Lebanese Uruguayans, or Uruguayans of Lebanese origin. The Lebanese are one of the larger non-European communities, though still not as large a group as most European groups. Relations between Uruguay and Lebanon have always been close.
Spanish immigration to Cuba began in 1492, when the Spanish first landed on the island, and continues to the present day. The first sighting of a Spanish boat approaching the island was on 27 October 1492, probably at Bariay on the eastern point of the island. Columbus, on his first voyage to the Americas, sailed south from what is now The Bahamas to explore the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola. Columbus came to the island believing it to be a peninsula of the Asian mainland.
Uruguayans are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and their allegiance to Uruguay. Colloquially, primarily among other Spanish-speaking Latin American nations, Uruguayans are also referred to as "orientals [as in Easterners]".
The Italian Hospital of Montevideo, whose official name is Ospedale italiano Umberto I, is a clinic and sanatorium founded in 1890 near Parque Batlle, Montevideo. It lies just to the north of the 1830 obelisk and the Hospital Pereira Rossell. The building, of the late neoclassical style, is the work of architect Luis Andreoni.
The Spanish diaspora consists of Spanish people and their descendants who emigrated from Spain.
Immigration to Uruguay began in several millennia BCE with the arrival of different populations from Asia to the Americas through Beringia, according to the most accepted theories, and were slowly populating the Americas. The most recent waves of immigrants started with the arrival of Spaniards in the 16th century, during the colonial period, to what was then known as the Banda Oriental.
Americans in Uruguay are mostly persons born in the United States and living in Uruguay. There are as well some Uruguayan-born persons of American descent.
Spanish Costa Rican are people from Costa Rica with Spanish ancestry from both the conquerors of the colonial period and as immigrants who arrived after independence and the Central American Federation of disunion. Historically this part of the population was called Criollo and were privileged but did not have equal rights with the Spaniards, some of them were mixed with Mestizos. Approximately 16,482 Spanish citizens living in Costa Rica for 2009.
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