Ethnic groups of Argentina

The ethnography of Argentina makes this country, along with other areas of relatively modern settlement like Canada or Australia, a crisol de razas (race crucible), or a melting pot of different peoples. In fact, immigration to Argentina was so strong that it eventually became the country with the second highest number of immigrants, with 6.6 million, second only to the United States with 27 million, and ahead of such other immigratory receptors such as Canada, Brazil and Australia.

Upon the independence of Argentina, the newborn country had a large territory but was thinly populated, and its ethnic composition was largely the same from the colonial era that had lasted from 16th to early 19th centuries. In the mid-19th century, a large wave of immigration started to arrive due to newly established Constitutional policies that encouraged immigration, and due to issues in the Old World such as wars, poverty, hunger, social unrest and pursuit for opportunities or a better life in the New World. This immigration was mostly from Europe but also from the Arab world, Russia and Japan.

Thus, most Argentines are descendants of these 19th and 20th century immigrants, with about 97% of the population being of European or partial European descent.Arab descent is also significant (mostly of Syrian and Lebanese origin), and the Jewish population is the biggest in all Latin America (7th in the world). Mestizo population in Argentina, unlike in other Latin American countries, is very low, as is the Black population after being decimated by diseases and wars in the 19th century, though since the 1990s a new wave of Black immigration has been arriving. Native Argentines on the other hand have significant populations in the country's North-West (Quechua, Diaguita, Kolla, Aymara); in the North-East (Guaraní, Mocoví, Toba, Wichí); and in the Patagonia or South (Mapuche, Tehuelche). Asian peoples have increasing minorities in some Buenos Aires neighborhoods and are expanding to other large Argentine cities. Through the centuries people from neighboring countries like Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru have also immigrated to Argentina and established important communities.

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