Te percehirty fivnt of the population lives in the DN and Santo Domingo province

Te percehirty fivnt of the population lives in the DN and Santo Domingo province
The ONE projects 66% of the inhabitants in the DR live in cities

SD. The search for services such as water, electricity and transportation is causing the Dominican population to have a high percentage of urban dwellers, concentrating 35% in the National District and the province of Santo Domingo and 16.1% in the North Cibao, according to preliminary data from the IX Nations Population and Housing Census of December 2010 which counted 9.3 million people.

This information was offered yesterday by the director of Census and Surveys of the National Statistical Office (ONE), Francisco Cespedes, who stressed that in 1920, 17% of the population lived in urban areas, and this had gone to 64% in 2002. It is projected that the results of the IX Census show an increase in the urban population to 65% or 66%.

The development of cities is occurring all over Latin America, according to Jorge Rodriguez of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Center, a part of CEPAL.

He said that three of every four Latin Americans lives in urban areas and this will soon be four of every five, He added that one in three live bunched up in the metropolis.

Many immigrants from the rural areas to the Dominican capital are concentrated in the vulnerable areas along the riverbanks, alleging economic weakness and the search for jobs.

The urbanization is also causing the backwardness of the rural areas, said Rodriguez during a meeting of the National Census Commission that was held yesterday to celebrate the World Population Day.

In the region of Enriquillo, for example, one of each three homes uses charcoal for cooking and in El Valle, one of every five homes has a dirt floor.

Fertility rates

According to the information presented by the head of Census and Surveys of the ONE, the pattern of fertility in the country has changed since the 1960s, going from eight children to 1.7 if the mothers are university educated or 2.4 if they are high school level. Those that lack education are maintaining a fertility level of four children, the same as was shown in the 1980 Census.

The infant mortality rate is at 48% of the mothers that have no schooling and 16% of they are university educated.


De Diario Libre