Demographics & population — Venezuela
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Demographics & population at a glance
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators. Key figure for Venezuela: 31,250,306
Immigration rules and fees change frequently — confirm current requirements on official government or embassy websites.
Population overview
- Population
31,250,306
- Population Growth Rate
2.34%
- Population Distribution
most of the population is concentrated in the northern and western highlands along an eastern spur at the northern end of the Andes, an area that includes the capital of Caracas
- Urban Population
- urban population: 88.4%
- of total population (2023) rate of urbanization: 1.16% annual rate of change
- Population in Major Urban Areas
2.972 million CARACAS (capital), 2.368 million Maracaibo, 1.983 million Valencia, 1.254 million Barquisimeto, 1.243 million Maracay, 964,000 Ciudad Guayana
- Population: Male/Female
- male: 15,555,451
- female: 15,694,855
Age & family
- Age Structure
- years: 25% (male 3,987,361/female 3,811,307) 15-64
- years: 65.9% (male 10,264,353/female 10,330,376) 65
- years and over: 9.1% (male 1,303,737/female 1,553,172)
- Median Age
- total: 31
- years male: 30.3
- years female: 31.7 years
- Birth Rate - births/1,000 population
17
- Death Rate - deaths/1,000 population
6.5
- Total Fertility Rate - children born/woman
2.18
- Gross reproduction rate
1
- Contraceptive Prevalance Rate - female 12-49
75%
- Contraceptive Prevalence Rate - female 12-49
75%
- Currently married women (ages 15-49)
51.5%
- Sex Ratio at Birth - male/female
- at birth: 1.05
- male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.05
- male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.99
- male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.84
- male(s)/female total population: 0.99 male(s)/female
Migration
- Net Migration Rate - migrant(s)/1,000 population
13.2
- Demographic profile
Venezuela’s ongoing socio-economic, political, and human rights crises have resulted in widespread poverty and food insecurity and have devastated the country’s healthcare system.
According to a 2018 national hospital survey, many hospitals were unable to provide basic services, and 20% of operating rooms and intensive care units were non-functional.
Hospitals reported shortages in water (79%), medicines (88%), and surgical supplies (79%).
The poor conditions in healthcare facilities have motivated many doctors and other health professionals to emigrate, resulting in shortages of specialists, particularly in emergency care.
The scarcity of medicines, vaccines, medical supplies, and mosquito controls is leading to a rise in infectious diseases.
Tuberculosis cases jumped by 68% between 2014 and 2017, and malaria rates had the largest rise in the world from 2016 to 2017 at 69%.
Diptheria, which had been eradicated in the country in 1999, re-emerged in 2016, and new cases have surfaced in 2023.
Infectious disease outbreaks, such as measles and malaria, have crossed into neighboring countries.
Infant mortality, which had been decreasing since the 1950s, has been on the rise since 2009.
Between 2015 and 2016, infant deaths increased 30%, while maternal mortality increased 65%.
As of November 2023, more than 7.7 million Venezuelan migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers had been reported by host governments, with approximately 85% relocating in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Colombia has been the largest recipient, accommodating almost 2.5 million as of February 2022, followed by Peru and Ecuador.
As of June 2022, almost 212,000 of the refugees and close to 1.04 million of the asylum seekers were recognized by national authorities.
An additional 4.3 million Venezuelans have been granted residence permits or other types of regular stay arrangements, as of March 2023.
The initial wave of migrants were highly educated professionals.
These were followed by university-educated young people.
As the economy collapsed in 2017-2018, Venezuelan migrants have been less-educated and from low-income households.
Ethnicity & language
- Ethnic Groups
unspecified Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arab, German, African, Indigenous
- Language Note
Spanish (official) 98.2%, indigenous 1.3%, Portuguese 0.1%, other 0.4%
- Nationality Noun
- Venezuelan(s) adjective: Venezuelan
Education
- Literacy - total population
97.5%
- Literacy - male
97.4%
- Literacy - female
97.7%
- Literacy Definition
age 15 and over can read and write
- Education Expenditures - percent of GDP
1.3%
Health & living conditions
- Life Expectancy at Birth
- total population: 74.5
- years male: 71.5
- years female: 77.7 years
- Infant Mortality Rate
- total: 13.9 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 15.4 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 12.2 deaths/1,000 live births
- Infant Mortality Rate - total deaths/1,000 live births
- total: 13.9 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 15.4 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 12.2 deaths/1,000 live births
- Maternal Mortality Rate - deaths/100,000 live births
259
- Physicians Density - physicians/1,000 population
1.73
- Hospital Bed Density - beds/1,000 population
.9
- Health Expenditures - percent of GDP
3.8%
- Major Infectious Diseases - degree of risk
- bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria
- Obesity - adult prevalence rate
25.6%
- Alcohol consumption per capita
- total: 2.51
- liters of pure alcohol beer: 1.54
- liters of pure alcohol wine: 0.01
- liters of pure alcohol spirits: 0.92
- liters of pure alcohol other alcohols: 0.03 liters of pure alcohol
- Drinking Water Source - percent of urban population improved
- NA total: 94.2%
- NA total: 5.8% of population
- Sanitation Facility Access - percent of urban population improved
- NA total: 95.8%
- NA total: 4.2% of population