Demographics of the Dominican Republic

This article is about the demographic features of the population of the Dominican Republic, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Dominican Republic population pyramid in 2020

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1920	894,665	—
1935	1,479,417	+65.4%
1950	2,135,872	+44.4%
1960	3,047,070	+42.7%
1970	4,009,458	+31.6%
1981	5,545,741	+38.3%
1993	7,293,390	+31.5%
2002	8,562,541	+17.4%
2010	9,445,281	+10.3%
2017	10,169,172	+7.7%
Source:[1]

Population

The Dominican Republic's population (1961–2003).

According to the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects[2][3] the total population was 10,627,141 in 2018, compared to 2,380,000 in 1950. The proportion of the population aged below 15 in 2010 was 31.2%, 62.8% were aged between 15 and 65 years of age, while 6% were aged 65 years or older.[4]

Group of Dominicans in the town of Moca.

	Total population (x 1000)	Proportion aged 0–14 (%)	Proportion aged 15–64 (%)	Proportion aged 65+ (%)
1950	2 380	45.5	51.7	2.7
1955	2 796	46.3	51.1	2.6
1960	3 312	48.2	49.2	2.6
1965	3 900	48.9	48.5	2.6
1970	4 524	47.7	49.7	2.7
1975	5 169	45.3	51.9	2.8
1980	5 826	42.6	54.4	3.1
1985	6 524	40.4	56.2	3.4
1990	7 245	38.5	57.6	3.9
1995	7 978	37.0	58.5	4.5
2000	8 663	34.9	59.9	5.1
2005	9 343	33.1	61.3	5.7
2010	10 017	31.2	62.8	6.0
2015	10 528	30.0	63.4	6.7
2020	11 107	28.3	62.8	7.6

Vital statistics

UN estimates

Registration of vital events is not universal in the Dominican Republic. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates: [4]

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR*	CDR*	NC*	TFR*	IMR*	Life expectancy total	Life expectancy males	Life expectancy females
1950–1955	140 000	53 000	87 000	54.3	20.5	33.8	7.60	153	46.0	44.7	47.3
1955–1960	163 000	54 000	109 000	53.4	17.6	35.8	7.64	139	49.9	48.6	51.4
1960–1965	178 000	52 000	126 000	49.5	14.5	35.0	7.35	124	53.6	52.1	55.2
1965–1970	186 000	50 000	136 000	44.2	11.8	32.3	6.65	109	56.9	55.4	58.7
1970–1975	190 000	47 000	143 000	39.2	9.7	29.6	5.68	96	59.8	58.1	61.8
1975–1980	194 000	46 000	149 000	35.4	8.3	27.1	4.76	86	62.0	60.3	64.0
1980–1985	206 000	46 000	160 000	33.4	7.5	25.9	4.15	75	64.0	62.1	66.1
1985–1990	213 000	46 000	168 000	31.0	6.7	24.3	3.65	63	66.5	64.3	69.0
1990–1995	218 000	46 000	172 000	28.7	6.0	22.7	3.31	48	69.0	66.5	71.9
1995–2000	215 000	50 000	165 000	25.8	6.0	19.8	2.98	41	70.0	67.3	73.1
2000–2005	219 000	54 000	165 000	23.8	6.1	17.7	2.75	35	71.1	68.1	74.4
2005–2010	221 000	58 000	163 000	22.0	6.0	16.0	2.57	30	72.2	69.2	75.5
2010–2015				20.9	6.1	14.8	2.57
2015–2020				19.7	6.1	13.6	2.45
2020–2025				18.0	6.4	11.6	2.36
2025–2030				16.5	6.7	9.8	2.23
2030–2035				15.2	7.1	8.1	2.12
2035–2040				14.2	7.5	6.7	2.03
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

Births and deaths

[5][6]

Year	Population	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2001		192,677	28,557	164,120
2002		189,704	26,525	163,179
2003		175,811	29,735	146,076
2004		166,401	34,400	132,001
2005		163,433	34,270	129,163
2006		155,501	32,259	123,242
2007		153,814	33,822	119,992
2008		160,578	33,865	126,713
2009		164,306	33,749	130,557				2.516
2010	9,445,281	166,195	36,438	129,757	17,59	3,86	13,73	2.491
2011		172,514	36,054	136,460				2.440
2012		165,991	36,266	129,725				2.418
2013		166,919	36,326	130,593				2.391
2014		169,107	40,896	128,211				2.364
2015		164,843	41,428	123,415				2.34
2016		155,883	43,633	112,250				2.31
2017		162,139	42,580	119,559
2018	10,266,149[7]	159,532	40,440	119,092
2019		167,686	42,811	124,875

Structure of the population [8]

Structure of the population (01.07.2017) (Estimates) :

Age Group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	5 082 876	5 086 296	10 169 172	100
0–4	492 808	472 820	965 628	9,49
5–9	492 702	474 348	967 050	9,50
10–14	492 107	477 445	969 552	9,53
15–19	480 035	471 501	951 536	9,51
20–24	455 440	453 444	930 505	9,15
25–29	420 715	423 382	844 907	8,30
30–34	377 850	385 180	763 030	7,50
35–39	339 877	348 143	688 020	6,76
40–44	306 907	313 858	616 955	6,07
45–49	275 488	282 105	557 593	5,48
50–54	245 299	249 766	495 065	4,87
55–59	206 257	210 188	416 445	4,10
60–64	162 912	168 103	331 015	3,25
65–69	121 894	126 929	248 523	2,44
70–74	86 739	90 761	177 500	1,74
75–79	61 133	65 274	126 407	1,24
80+	65 523	73 349	138 872	1,36

Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0–14	1 595 851	1 538 432	3 134 283	30,56
15–64	3 213 973	3 268 108	6 482 081	63,19
65+	306 501	334 859	641 360	6,25

Structure of the population (DHS 2013) (Males 19 686, Females 19 878 = 39 564) :

Age Group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0–4	10,2	9,6	9,9
5–9	9,6	9,1	9,4
10–14	10,5	10,7	10,6
15–19	10,0	9,8	9,9
20–24	9,6	9,1	9,3
25–29	7,9	7,8	7,9
30–34	7,7	7,6	7,6
35–39	6,4	6,2	6,3
40–44	6,2	5,9	6,0
45–49	5,2	5,4	5,3
50–54	4,1	5,2	4,7
55–59	3,3	3,5	3,4
60–64	3,0	3,5	3,2
65–69	1,9	2,0	2,0
70–74	1,7	1,7	1,7
75–79	1,2	1,1	1,1
80+	1,7	1,8	1,8

Age group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0–14	30,3	29,4	29,9
15–64	63,2	64,0	63,5
65+	6,5	6,6	6,6

Fertility and births

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):[9]

Year	CBR (Total)	TFR (Total)	CBR (Urban)	TFR (Urban)	CBR (Rural)	TFR (Rural)
1965–69		7,1
1970–74		5,8
1975–79		4,7
1980–82		4,31
1983–85		3,69
1986		3,8 (2,8)		3,2 (2,5)		5,1 (3,5)
1991	30,1	3,3 (2,6)	29,7	2,8 (2,3)	30,5	4,4 (3,1)
1996	27,7	3,2 (2,5)	24,4	2,8 (2,2)	29,8	4,0 (3,0)
1999		2,9 (2,3)		2,7 (2,1)		3,4 (2,7)
2002	25,2	3,0 (2,3)	25,3	2,8 (2,3)	24,9	3,3 (2,5)
2007	20,4	2,4 (1,9)	20,0	2,3 (1,8)	21,4	2,8 (2,1)
2013	20,9	2,5 (2,0)	21,2	2,4 (1,9)	20,3	2,6 (2,1)

Other demographic statistics

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.[10]

• One birth every 2 minutes
• One death every 8 minutes
• One net migrant every 18 minutes
• Net gain of one person every 5 minutes

Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.[11]

Population

10,298,756 (July 2018 est.)

Age structure

Population pyramid of Dominican Republic in 2017

0-14 years: 27.56% (male 1,442,926 /female 1,395,809)

15-24 years: 18.52% (male 969,467 /female 937,765)

25-54 years: 40.28% (male 2,112,813 /female 2,035,902)

55-64 years: 7.71% (male 397,821 /female 396,172)

65 years and over: 5.92% (male 286,300 /female 323,781) (2018 est.)

Ethnic groups

mixed 70.4% (mestizo/indio 58%, mulatto 12.4%), black 15.8%, white 13.5%, other 0.3% (2014 est.)

note: respondents self-identified their race; the term "indio" in the Dominican Republic is not associated with people of indigenous ancestry but people of mixed ancestry or skin color between light and dark

Median age

total: 27.3 years. Country comparison to the world: 145th

male: 27.1 years

female: 27.4 years (2018 est.)

Birth rate

18.9 births/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 84th

Death rate

6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 145th

Total fertility rate

2.28 children born/woman (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 88th

Net migration rate

-2.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 170th

Population growth rate

0.99% (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 109th

Mother's mean age at first birth

21.3 years (2013 est.)

note: median age at first birth among women 25-29

Contraceptive prevalence rate

69.5% (2014)

Dependency ratios

total dependency ratio: 57.8 (2015 est.) Country comparison to the world: 151st

youth dependency ratio: 47.3 (2015 est.)

elderly dependency ratio: 10.5 (2015 est.)

potential support ratio: 9.5 (2015 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 71.3 years. Country comparison to the world: 151st

male: 69.7 years

female: 73.1 years (2018 est.)

Religions

• Roman Catholic 95%
• Other 5%

Urbanization

urban population: 81.1% of total population (2018)

rate of urbanization: 2.06% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)

Languages

• Spanish (official)

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2016 est.)

total population: 93.8%

male: 93.8%

female: 93.8% (2016 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 14 years

male: 13 years

female: 14 years (2016)

Unemployment, youth ages 15–24:

total: 13.4%. Country comparison to the world: 97th

male: 8.5%

female: 21.7% (2016 est.)

See also

• Health in the Dominican Republic
• Youth in the Dominican Republic

Census information:

• 1920 Santo Domingo Census
• 1950 Dominican Republic Census
• 1960 Dominican Republic Census
• 1970 Dominican Republic Census
• 2010 Dominican Republic Census

References

1. "Censos de Población y Vivienda". Oficina Nacional de Estadística. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
2. ""World Population prospects – Population division"". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
3. ""Overall total population" – World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision" (xslx). population.un.org (custom data acquired via website). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
4. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision Archived May 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
5. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2.htm
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-11-14. Retrieved 2016-02-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. Atlas de género de la República Dominicana, 2020
8. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/dyb/documents/dyb2017/table07.pdf
9. http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/dhs#_r=&collection=&country=&dtype=&from=1890&page=5&ps=&sk=&sort_by=nation&sort_order=&to=2014&topic=&view=s&vk=
10. "Dominican Republic Population 2019", World Population Review
11. "World Factbook CENTRAL AMERICA : DOMINICAN REPUBLIC", The World Factbook, July 12, 2018 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.