Ecuador
The Country of the Week
Quick Facts
- Capital
- Quito
- Population
- 18,479,841 (2025 est.)
- Area
- 283,561 sq km
- Government
- presidential republic
- Religions
- Roman Catholic 68.2%, Protestant 19% (Evangelical 18.3%, Adventist 0.6%, other Protestant 0.2%), Jehovah's Witness 1.4%, other 2.3%, none 8.2% don't know/no response 1% (2023 est.)
- Ethnic Groups
- Mestizo (mixed Indigenous and White) 77.5%, Montubio 7.7%, Indigenous 7.7%, White 2.2%, Afroecuadorian 2%, Mulatto 1.4%, Black 1.3%, other 0.1% (2022 est.)
- Life Expectancy
- 74.9 years (2024 est.)
- Internet Domain
- .ec
- Climate
- tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher elevations; tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands
- Terrain
- coastal plain (costa), inter-Andean central highlands (sierra), and flat to rolling eastern jungle (oriente)
- Natural Resources
- petroleum, fish, timber, hydropower
- Major Exports
- crude petroleum, shellfish, bananas, fish, gold (2023)
Source: CIA World Factbook (public domain)
Overview
What is now Ecuador formed part of the northern Inca Empire until the Spanish conquest in 1533. Quito -- the traditional name for the area -- became a seat of Spanish colonial government in 1563 and part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717.