The 2001 census registered 8,274,325 for the whole of the Bolivian population. From those above 15 years of age, 62% identified with indigenous peoples.

As the tally shows, the present population in Bolivia is predominantly constituted by the originary peoples, those whose ancestors occupied these very same lands long before 1534 -when Spanish conquerors took over the western side of Lake Titicaca- and the Europeans, Africans and Asians that arrived after this date.

The originary peoples are identified with two main geographical areas: the Andean region, where Quechuas and Aymaras are prevalent; and the eastern lowlands, where ethnic groups tend to decrease in size the further their settlements reach into the Amazonian habitat. Such is the case with the  Chiquitanos, the Guaranies, the Moxeños, the Movida, the Guarayos, and several dozens more amazonian Bolivians.

Most of the European ancestry came from Spain during the colonization era. After the Republic was established, and as one of many consequences brought about by the Industrial Revolution, immigrants arrived from Germany and Italy, two of the larger European nations with no colonies of their own.

At the beginning of the 20th century, and as a result of the great political upheavals in the Balcans and neighboring areas, immigrants would be mostly Croatian, Hungarian, Turkish and Palestinian. Finally, as the second half of the century began, Japanese colonists arrived in the thousands.

A special place in the country’s ethnographic history is reserved for Afro-Bolivians. These descendants of slaves introduced by the Spanish and concentrated mainly in Los Yungas at La Paz, have made a distinct mark in Bolivian culture with the contribution of their rich heritage from the Congo and Angola.