Latin American election and demographic maps

[Hash]

Unfortunately, accessing detailed election results for old elections in Colombia (as in, anything pre-2002) is a bitch and demographic data is rarely presented in a way which makes for quick 'n easy mapmaking, but there's still much to be done and there's enough to analyse without need for maps.

To start things off, here's a racial/ethnic map of Colombia by municipality with data from the 2005 census. The census asked for self-identification with an ethnic minority group, namely indigenous, black/mulatto/Afrocolombian, Raizal (San Andrés y Providencia) and minor ones (Roma, Palenquero); the data is obviously old, low population areas (especially out in Amazonia) and have some sketchy numbers if they're even covered. Furthermore, racial/ethnic identity in Colombia is a very complicated and complex topic (even moreso in certain regions, like the Caribe/Costa), so reducing it to a few categories is simplistic and likely misleading, and these categories hide the diversity of the "white/mestizo" 'majority' and cannot accurately reflect the overlap between these categories over a long historical period. As a reflection of this, many argue that the black population is badly under-reported (10.2% in the census, perhaps as much as 25-30% in reality). Furthermore, the very recognition of such racial diversity is very recent (1991) so it remains very much in flux (particularly talking of Afrocolombians here again), as one can guess by comparing the results of racial self-identification questions on the 1993 and 2005 censuses. It does, however, give a fairly good general indication of the ethnic makeup and geographic distribution of minorities in Colombia.

[Hash]

Here is a simple map showing the birthplaces (departamentos) of all presidents since 1886. Why, yes, Colombia was a ridiculously centralized unitary republic until not long ago.

[Hash]

For public utilities, public services, subsidies, fees, social spending, planning and a number of other things, households in Colombia are classified into six 'estratos socioeconómicos' - which is based on an objective evaluation, by the local government, of the quality and suitability of all residential buildings, rather than on income levels. There are several issues with the data and its suitability, but it is quite interesting and is often used as a simple way to divide the society into 6 'social classes'. Strata 1 is the lowest (poorest), strata 6 is the poorest; strata 1-3 are all considered low-income, strata 4 is middle-income and strata 5-6 are high income.

Unfortunately, the data is quite hard to access in one location, although the big municipalities will often publish strata data by comuna (the primary subdivision of a municipio) and you can find maps of households by strata at the barrio level. I've been hunting down a place with data by municipality on the relative size of each strata - and I finally found it, with a centralized government database for public utility data. The chart below shows the percentage of residential buildings (or households, if you will) which fall under the 6 strata in each of the 30 or so biggest cities in Colombia - the data is calculated from the electricity services, which has the largest coverage of all public utility services. The electricity services data is often the one preferred for statistics on this kind of stuff.

[Hash]

'Necesidades básicas insatisfechas' (basic needs unsatisfied), or NBI, is a widespread method to identify poverty (mostly extreme poverty) in Latin America, using indicators directly related with people's basic needs - housing, sanitation, basic education and basic income. In Colombia, it was last calculated for every municipality (except a handful) in the last census, which was in 2005. It is not an indicator of poverty - in Colombia at least, the percentage of people living in poverty is much higher than the NBI percentage. In 2005, 27.7% of Colombians had an NBI; the same year, the national monetary poverty rate was 45% (it is now 28.5%), although the extreme monetary poverty rate was lower (14%, now 8%). So, the NBI data is not a perfect way to thoroughly calculate poverty and it is now 10 years old, but it can give a good general view of the poor and rich areas of Colombia.



The most fundamental geographic difference in Colombian poverty is the urban/rural dimension - in 2005, the national NBI percentage was 27.7%; in 'cabeceras' (that is, the populated core of every municipality) it was 19.7%, but in rural areas of municipalities it was 53.5%. In the latest poverty data from the DANE in 2014, monetary poverty was 28.5% nationally, 25% in 'cabeceras', 16% in the 13 main metro areas, 41% in 'dispersed' populated centres/rural areas and 37% in other 'cabeceras'.

Top 10 lowest NBI in 2005 ('richest'):
1. Envigado (Antioquia): 5.43% - southern suburb of Medellín, located directly south of El Poblado, the richest comuna in Medellín. Includes very rich areas, or otherwise lower middle-class residential areas which cannot be considered poor without being very rich. Has a strong commercial/industrial base.
2. Sabaneta (Antioquia): 6.84% - southern suburb of Medellín, located directly south of Envigado. See above.
3. Chía (Cundinamarca): 7.11% - outer suburb of Bogotá, located 10km north of the city centre, adjacent to the wealthy areas of northern Bogotá. Largely new residential middle-class town.
4. Itagüí (Antioquia): 8.79% - densely populated southern suburb of Medellín, located west of Sabaneta and Envigado. It is not as wealthy as Envigado income-wise, but is largely lower middle-class (by Colombian standards), which does not make it poor by NBI definition.
5. Sopó (Cundinamarca): 8.94% - outer exurb of Bogotá, with the 'cabecera' located some 40km from the city centre, but bordering Chía and northern Bogotá's Usaquen district. Historically a rural village, there are now country clubs and houses for rich people.
6. Duitama (Boyacá): 8.99% - third largest city in the eastern department of Boyacá, and the major industrial/commercial centre on national road 55, which connects Bogotá to the Venezuelan border city of Cúcuta. Prosperous city by Colombian standards, lacking large very poor areas (shantytowns); generally not being poor without being especially rich.
7. Bogotá D.C.: 9.2% - needs no introduction hopefully; Bogotá is a huge city with equally huge socioeconomic diversity within its borders. I guess the crucial point is that Bogotá's poorest barrios are not shantytowns and instead have formal housing which are generally not considered NBI. A similar observation can be made about the poorest barrios of other major cities, i.e. Medellín, Cali, Bucaramanga, Manizales or Pereira (which also have NBIs below 15%).
8. Floridablanca (Santander): 9.43% - large southern suburb of Bucaramanga, the capital of Santander department and one of the most well-off metro areas in the country (because of its strong industrial base and high education levels).
9. Copacabana (Antioquia): 9.75% - northern suburb of Medellín in the Aburrá valley. Socioeconomically similar to Itagüí.
10. Manizales (Caldas): 10.03% - capital of Caldas department in the coffee axis, a fairly prosperous region (esp. by rural Colombia standards). A relatively important economic centre (with a local government strongly pushing entrepreneurship and outside investment), and a major 'college town' (five major universities, several smaller ones). Its poor areas are not shantytowns, and as you can see by looking at the 'estratos' data above, it also has a fairly high percentage of wealthy (strata 6) people. It is also the best municipality in the entire country (perhaps shared with Medellín), this is an undeniable reality

Bottom 10 highest NBI in 2005 ('poorest'):
1. Río Quito (Chocó): 98.81% - overwhelmingly Afro-Colombian villages along the Río Quito river in the wildest depths of the Chocó, but it's really not wild nothingness - nearly 9,000 people live here. The Río Quito is very rich in minerals, including gold, which has brought an illegal mining boom to the region in the last 15 years. A superb special feature in El Espectador describes the misery and horrors mining has brought to the municipality - corruption, violence, water contamination, environmental destruction, crop destruction, armed groups and obviously only more poverty.
2. Puerto Colombia (Guainía): 97.79% - a corregimiento departamental in the remote Amazonian jungle, bordering Venezuela and Brazil; entirety is part of an indigenous reserve. Seems to be accessible only by boat on the rivers.
3. Alto Baudó (Chocó): 97.18% - remote predominantly rural municipality in the Chocó jungle, with extremely difficult access. Its population is predominantly Afro-Colombian with a large indigenous population in reserves throughout the municipality's territory. Like other rural and remote areas of the Chocó, it is extremely poor and continues to face huge challenge including the presence of armed groups/criminal gangs, the absence of the state, displacement, illegal mining and chronic economic underdevelopment. Its population is significant (36,773).
4. Murindó (Antioquia): 97.08% - very similar to the neighbouring Chocó, it is the most remote municipality in Antioquia and the Urabá region (a very troubled region to begin with). Its population is split between Afro-Colombian and indigenous. Problems common to the Urabá/Chocó are further aggravated by a long history of flooding, leading to several demands from locals to be relocated.
5. Uribia (La Guajira): 96.05% - the third most populous municipality in the Guajira department of northeastern Colombia (pop. 174k), covering the Guajira peninsula (the 'tip' of the South American continent/Colombia) and the Guajira desert. The municipality is overwhelmingly indigenous, as it covers most of the Alta y Media Guajira indigenous reserve, the most populated reserve in the country (pop. 204.8k) - home to the Wayúu people, Colombia's single largest indigenous group. Despite its unspoiled beaches and extraordinary environment, the region is extremely poor and suffers from a whole host of problems, the most important of which in the past years has been a prolonged drought. There actually was an article in The Guardian earlier this year about the horrible impacts of drought, child malnutrition, corruption and big mining on the Wayúu people of the Guajira.
6. Bojayá (Chocó): 96.03% - municipality of about 10,000 people in the Chocó department, primarily settled along the Atrato river (the main means of communication), with its population very heavily made up of Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples. Infamous as the site of the May 2002 Bojayá massacre, one of the most cruel acts of violence in the armed conflict. Civilians were caught in the crossfire between the FARC and the AUC (paramilitaries) in a fight for control of the region, and over 100 civilians including many children died when a cylinder bomb thrown by the FARC exploded in a church where they were seeking refuge. Only a few days ago, the FARC returned to Bojayá to ask for forgiveness.
7. San Jacinto (Bolívar): 94.38% / 8: El Carmen de Bolívar (Bolívar): 93.45% - neighbouring municipalities in the Montes de María region of the Caribbean department of Bolívar; El Carmen de Bolívar is one of the largest towns in the department outside of Cartagena, with a population of over 75,000. While they are poor municipalities, their inclusion here surprised me since they seem unlike the others on this list (not dirt poor and remote). I suspect this may be due to the fact that, in 2005, this region was just recovering from a particularly brutal wave of paramilitary violence, which had resulted in two significant civilian massacres in 2000 (Macayepo and El Salado) in El Carmen de Bolívar. The entire region was a hotbed of paramilitary activity, parapolitics, massacres of civilians and forced displacement during this era.
9. Tuchín (Córdoba): 92.26% - this municipality in the Caribbean department of Córdoba is part of the San Andrés de Sotavento indigenous reserve (Zenú people), the second largest indigenous reserve in the country with a population over about 67,000. The municipality has a population of about 37,000.
10. Santa Rosa (Bolívar): 91.9% - municipality 24km from Cartagena. Results again seem fishy to me.

Worth adding that Quibdó, the capital of the Chocó, has a NBI of 89.5% - the highest, by far, of any departmental capital.

[homelycooking]

Seems like the level of NBI is very dependent on the quality of transportation infrastructure. I've perused at some highway maps of Colombia and it looks like whole departments are inaccessible by good roads. Is that the case? I wonder about the connectivity and cohesiveness (transportation, communication, culture) of a vast country so enormously riven by geography.

I'm not sure what is meant by "critical overcrowding". Is that just a measure of population density? That dimension doesn't seem to have much of an effect on the overall NBI.

[Skye]

Unfortunately, accessing detailed election results for old elections in Colombia (as in, anything pre-2002) is a bitch and demographic data is rarely presented in a way which makes for quick 'n easy mapmaking, but there's still much to be done and there's enough to analyse without need for maps.

Venezuela in a nutshell. Interesting maps btw.

[Hash]

Seems like the level of NBI is very dependent on the quality of transportation infrastructure. I've perused at some highway maps of Colombia and it looks like whole departments are inaccessible by good roads. Is that the case? I wonder about the connectivity and cohesiveness (transportation, communication, culture) of a vast country so enormously riven by geography.

Well, it's certainly true that the poorest regions of Colombia are also the most remote and inaccessible regions. The Chocó is a region which is very difficult to access from the rest of the country by land, because there are basically only three roads in the region, two of them linking Quibdó to Medellín/Pereira, and even these roads hardly seem to be in prime condition. Large swathes of the Amazonian departments are unreachable, and this includes departmental capitals like Leticia or Mitú. At the same time, I'm not sure if the link between high NBI and the presence of transportation infrastructure is that strong - there are certainly plenty of poor (rural) areas which are not particularly remote or isolated from other parts of the country. Furthermore, the lack of transportation infrastructure in the Chocó is probably in good part an effect of the underdevelopment, endemic violence, systemic racism and historic absence of the State (and its geographic/climatic disabilities, which are severe and make it hard to build decent roads even if it was a wealthier region). The level of NBI is, at the end of the day, also heavily dependent on the rural/urban dimension and ethnicity/race - although remoteness, geographic handicaps and the lack of decent infrastructure of any kind are also major factors.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Critical overcrowding refers to overcrowding of the household - basically if three or more people are living in a single room.

[Hash]

So, after hunting around the darkest places of the interwebs, I deciphered the workings of the Registraduria's ginormous and horrendously organised Excel file of all polling station results of the 2014 elections (Prez.) and matched that up to other sources regarding first-level administrative divisions in the cities, which means that I'm able to make 2014 presidential maps down to first-level administrative division within most major municipalities (comuna in urban areas, corregimientos for rural outskirts).

I did Medellín by comuna/corregimiento in the 2014 runoff, and although the map is unsurprisingly not very colourful (Zuluaga, Uribe's candidate, won a landslide), there are interesting patterns to be spotted.

[Hash]

Medellín again, with a more interesting race - the 2015 mayoral election. This is the first ever map of the kind, because it's quite challenging to collate different results together.

[Hash]

Cali now - Colombia's third largest city and capital of the Valle department. It was practically a four-way tie in the first round (a map of that will be interesting) - Santos 24%, Clara 20.5%, Ramírez 18.7% and Zuluaga 18.3% - but Santos won decisively in the runoff here, with 61.9% against 33.3% for Zuluaga. In line with what happened nationally between both rounds, Santos benefited from increased turnout and did incredibly well at winning first round left-wing voters. His victory in Cali and the Valle was one of the crucial points, as it is a fairly bellwether kind of department and city.

Here is the urban area by comuna (Cali has 22 of them)



And the rural corregimientos of Cali



Comparing this to first round results will be better, but, from the above maps, Santos dominated practically everywhere in the city core, with his strongest results (over 60-65%) coming, generally, from the poorer comunas of the old centre and the eastern end of the city, while he was held under 60% in slightly wealthier comunas like 17 and 19. Zuluaga was victorious only in comuna 22 (the least populated) and is almost entirely very wealthy walled compounds and villas (statistically, 90% of houses are 'strata 6' (the highest). He broke 40% in only one other comuna, no. 2, which is 45% strata 5+6.

I will also make a map of the 2015 mayoral race in Cali, which was interesting.

I doubt people are particularly interested, but I can take requests for 2014 maps for any of the major cities. I plan on doing Bucaramanga and Manizales soon, as well as Cali first round and 2015.

[Sol]

Very awesome series Hash!

What are the patterns/divides in Medellin? Where are the poor areas, rich, etc. and how does that correlate to voting?

[Hash]

Very awesome series Hash!

What are the patterns/divides in Medellin? Where are the poor areas, rich, etc. and how does that correlate to voting?

The poorest areas of Medellín are generally the barrios located on the hills/mountain flanks, historically isolated from and peripheral to the main city core which is located in the valley. In terms of comunas, the poorest are comuna 1 (Popular), 3 (Manrique), 6 (12 de Octubre), 8 (Villa Hermosa) and infamous 13 (San Javier). In addition, comuna 2 is about 86% strata 2 and comuna 7 (Robledo) is 61% strata 1+2, so both are also quite poor. By 'North American' standards, strata 3 (lower-middle) would be poor, but is considered more lower middle-class in Colombia, and the popular wisdom is that close elections in the cities are often won by these voters. In Medellín, comuna 5 is 81% strata 3, comuna 9 is 61% strata 3 and comuna 15 is 57% strata 3. The richest part of Medellín is, by far, El Poblado (comuna 14), which is 73% strata 6; the second wealthiest, although much less famous than El Poblado, is comuna 11 (Laureles-Estadio) - 62% strata 5 (and 36.5% strata 4). Comuna 16, Belén, the most populated comuna, located in the south of the city, is pretty well-off for Colombian standards. Comuna 10 (La Candelaria), which is downtown Medellín, is about 51% strata 4, but at the same time it has the criminality of a strata 1 comuna.

In terms of voting patterns, Medellín voted 63% for Zuluaga and only 29.4% for Santos in the runoff, so it's more a question of where Zuluaga was not as strong rather than weakest here. Zuluaga's lowest results came from the northern end of the city, being held under 60% in comunas 1 through 8, and Santos over 30% in all of them. These are, as noted above, generally the poorer half of the city, although Zuluaga did won over 63% in San Javier, which is also very poor. Zuluaga's best results came from the wealthiest areas - he won 79% in El Poblado and 70% in Laureles-Estadio, and was in the high 60s in Las Américas (66.6%) and Belén (67.6%). While Colombia's richest urban neighbourhoods tend to be somewhat more uribista*, their distinctive note is anti-populism, something which is much more visible in local elections.

On that note, I should post some maps of the 2011 mayoral election in Medellín soon, which will reveal some interesting results.

* which isn't to say that uribismo is a rich people phenomenon, its modern geography has little to do with wealth.

[Hash]

Manizales (best city ever), the capital of Caldas department in the Eje Cafetero of the central Andean region, is a fairly prosperous city of about 400,000 people and self-proclaimed academic centre because of its five major universities (besides the usual bunch of Latin American "private universities", i.e. criminal enterprises). Caldas is a small-c conservative region, and its political culture is similar to that of Antioquia (as Caldas was settled from Antioquia in the 19th century) and forms part of the wider Antioquia-based paisa region. Caldas is also the native department of Óscar Iván Zuluaga, the uribista candidate in 2014, and unsurprisingly was one of his strongest departments with 40.5% in the first round and 61.3% in the second. In the first round, Manizales voted 30.9% for Zuluaga, followed in distant second by Clara López (left-wing, Polo-UP) with 18.3%, and then by Martha Lucía Ramírez (Conservative) with 16.9%, Santos with 15.9% and Peñalosa with 10.8%.



Zuluaga won all comunas in the city. His best results (by a lot) came from comuna 8 (Palogrande), where he won 39.2%, a lead of over 22 points over his closest competitor (in this case, Santos). Comuna 8 is the wealthiest in Manizales, including basically all of the 'strata 6' neighbourhoods of the city. It was also the best comuna in the city for Enrique Peñalosa (13.7%), who is very much of a rich people's candidate both in Bogotá local politics and during his brief foray into national politics in 2014. Indeed, in Manizales, just like in the other cities I've had the chance to examine, Peñalosa's map is a good basic indicator of relative wealth, always performing best in the strata 5-6 comuna. His other top results were in comuna 1 (Atardeceres, 12.6%), which includes some comfortable middle-class barrios (the lovely Chipre among them), comuna 6 (Ecoturístico Cerro de Oro, 12.5%), which despite being predominantly lower middle income (strata 3) does include a fair bit of strata 4-5 neighbourhoods (even some strata 6 blocks in Suiza near the trendy and affluent Cable core) and finally comuna 4 (Estación, 12.1%) which has some nicer higher-end neighbourhoods/blocks. Zuluaga and Santos' support showed very little correlation to wealth, especially in the case of the latter, whose support in the cities I've looked at has been remarkably evenly distributed. In fact, Santos' best comunas in Manizales were the wealthiest (8, 17%) and one of the poorest (2, San José, 18.8%). Zuluaga, whose manizaleño support was very even, also performed well in the poorest comunas - 2 (31%), 10 (29%) and 11 (32%). Another candidate whose support had a somewhat noticeable correlation to wealth was Ramírez, the Conservative candidate, who did very poorly in comuna 8 (8.9%) and won her best results largely from the lower and lower middle income comunas (her best was comuna 5, Ciudadela del Norte, which is solidly strata 2 territory, where she got 22.3%). Her second best was comuna 9 (Universitaria), with 20.7%; this comuna includes only strata 2 or 3 barrios. Clara López, the left-wing candidate, placed second in the city, which may have something to do with the presence of public universities. Her support ranged from 16% to 21% in the city, so no huge variation, though in general terms she did poorly in the poorest parts (16.6% in comuna 2) and wealthiest parts (16.3% in comuna 8), and best in lower middle to middle income areas, with comuna 4 being her best (21.2%), narrowly ahead of comuna 7 (Tesorito, 20.1%), 6 (20.4%) and 9 (20.1%).

I will talk about the first round in Cali next, but I intend to come back with some maps of last October's 3-way mayoral contest in Manizales, which had some interesting patterns.

[Hash]

If anybody at all cares (just wondering - is there interest here?), I have gotten my hands on full electoral results for all elections from 1958 through 2014, at the departmental and municipal level, in addition to national elections from 1935 onwards at the departmental level. Are there any requests?

[Skye]

If anybody at all cares (just wondering - is there interest here?), I have gotten my hands on full electoral results for all elections from 1958 through 2014, at the departmental and municipal level, in addition to national elections from 1935 onwards at the departmental level. Are there any requests?

I think this is quite interesting, but I don't really know enough about Colombian geography or demographics to actually care for it.

[bmw1503]

If anybody at all cares (just wondering - is there interest here?), I have gotten my hands on full electoral results for all elections from 1958 through 2014, at the departmental and municipal level, in addition to national elections from 1935 onwards at the departmental level. Are there any requests?

I'd be fascinated to see some of those results mapped out, particularly for the elections leading up to La Violencia in 1948, which has to be among the worst understood major civil conflicts in the 20th century Western Hemisphere.

A questions as well: What is the support base of the left in Colombia, as far as socio-economic, education level, geography, etc? It seems to be far weaker than in other South American countries (for the obvious historical reasons) and definitely does not seem to follow the patterns of nearby countries.

[Velasco]

Peñalosa's map is a good basic indicator of relative wealth, always performing best in the strata 5-6 comuna. His other top results were in comuna 1 (Atardeceres, 12.6%), which includes some comfortable middle-class barrios (the lovely Chipre among them), comuna 6 (Ecoturístico Cerro de Oro, 12.5%), which despite being predominantly lower middle income (strata 3) does include a fair bit of strata 4-5 neighbourhoods (even some strata 6 blocks in Suiza near the trendy and affluent Cable core) and finally comuna 4 (Estación, 12.1%) which has some nicer higher-end neighbourhoods/blocks. Zuluaga and Santos' support showed very little correlation to wealth, especially in the case of the latter, whose support in the cities I've looked at has been remarkably evenly distributed. (...)  Another candidate whose support had a somewhat noticeable correlation to wealth was Ramírez, the Conservative candidate, who did very poorly in comuna 8 (8.9%) and won her best results largely from the lower and lower middle income comunas (her best was comuna 5, Ciudadela del Norte, which is solidly strata 2 territory, where she got 22.3%). Her second best was comuna 9 (Universitaria), with 20.7%; this comuna includes only strata 2 or 3 barrios.

If I remember well, the vote for Peñalosa and Ramírez followed a similar socioeconomic pattern in Bogotá. The Alianza Verde candidate performed strongly in the richer comunas located in the NE and poorly in the south of the city. The Conservative woman did better in the S and worse in upper middle class comunas such as Teusaquillo. Clara López better in lower middle income comunas and worse in the NE. The Santos' pattern was undecipherable. As for Zuluaga, I think he did somewhat better in the socioeconomic extremes of Bogotá (NE and S).

Do you have plans to make some Bogotá maps and explain the patterns?

Here's the strata map of the city (the N is in the left of the image and the S in the right):

[Hash]

If I remember well, the vote for Peñalosa and Ramírez followed a similar socioeconomic pattern in Bogotá. The Alianza Verde candidate performed strongly in the richer comunas located in the NE and poorly in the south of the city. The Conservative woman did better in the S and worse in upper middle class comunas such as Teusaquillo. Clara López better in lower middle income comunas and worse in the NE. The Santos' pattern was undecipherable. As for Zuluaga, I think he did somewhat better in the socioeconomic extremes of Bogotá (NE and S).

Do you have plans to make some Bogotá maps and explain the patterns?

Here's the strata map of the city (the N is in the left of the image and the S in the right):

Yes, the Peñalosa vote in cities outside of Bogotá followed the Bogotá pattern. As I said, in all his elections in Bogotá, he's clearly been the rich people's candidate. In 2014, Peñalosa won 25.5% in Usaquén, 23.5% in Chapinero, 21.8% in Teusaquillo and Suba and 20.7% in Barrios Unidos. If I looked at the results by polling station I'm certain that his vote was even stronger in the strata 5-6 polls (Usaquén and Chapinero both include strata 1-2 barrios where his vote was sh**t). In contrast, in the poorest sectors - Usme and Ciudad Bolívar - he got 7% or so. In 2015, the contrast was even starker, since I believe Peñalosa placed fourth in Ciudad Bolívar, while he got over 70% in the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the north of the city. Ramírez's 2014 vote in Bogotá was, as I noted in other cities, lowest in the wealthiest sectors.

In Bogotá and other cities, Clara's vote was fairly evenly spread outside of the wealthiest parts, although in Bogotá she mostly won places which are low-income but not extremely poor (but the differences are very small) - localidades like Kennedy, for example. Zuluaga did well with both very rich and very poor, and Santos' vote was perhaps the most evenly spread of all candidates.

I intend to make some Bogotá maps sometime soon, although I also want to look at Bogotá results at an even more micro level (polling stations) for some sectors.

[Velasco]

I intend to make some Bogotá maps sometime soon, although I also want to look at Bogotá results at an even more micro level (polling stations) for some sectors.

Excellent  Mayoral elections in Bogotá or First Round in Cali would be very interesting to watch too.

[Hash]

Estimated preliminary 2016 homicide rates, using Medicina Legal data and 2016 population estimates.

The national homicide rate is calculated at 21.9, which was surprisingly low (initial end-of-year reports suggested something in the vicinity of 24-26). In any case, this is the lowest in some 40 years - compared to 24 in 2015, 40.3 in 2006, 69.6 in 2002 and 81 in 1991.



The highest homicide rate is in the Valle del Cauca - Cali (49.2), followed by the Quindío (42.9), Norte de Santander (36.3), Chocó (34.3) and Arauca (33.9). Bogotá's homicide rate was 16, Antioquia - Medellín was 21.9. Remote jungle Vaupés had no homicides in 2016, neighbouring remote jungle Guainía had just one.

[Hash]

Bumping this to post this map. Here is an ethnic map of Colombia, based on 2018 census data.

Actually it is more ethnic self-identification, with the options presented being "indigenous", "Roma", "Raizal", "Palenquero", "black/Mulatto/Afro" and "no ethnic group". The vast majority (87.6%) didn't identify with any ethnic group, so I somewhat simplistically labelled them as "mestizo/white". 6.7% identified as Afro, down from a bit over 10% in the 2005 census, and 4.3% as indigenous.

Chocó (Afro), La Guajira, Amazonas, Guainía, Vaupés and Vichada (indigenous) are the only departments with an ethnic minority majority/plurality. San Andrés/Providencia is 43% none and 42% Raizal, Cauca is only 54.5% none.

[xelas81]

Bumping this to post this map. Here is an ethnic map of Colombia, based on 2018 census data.

Actually it is more ethnic self-identification, with the options presented being "indigenous", "Roma", "Raizal", "Palenquero", "black/Mulatto/Afro" and "no ethnic group". The vast majority (87.6%) didn't identify with any ethnic group, so I somewhat simplistically labelled them as "mestizo/white". 6.7% identified as Afro, down from a bit over 10% in the 2005 census, and 4.3% as indigenous.

Chocó (Afro), La Guajira, Amazonas, Guainía, Vaupés and Vichada (indigenous) are the only departments with an ethnic minority majority/plurality. San Andrés/Providencia is 43% none and 42% Raizal, Cauca is only 54.5% none.

Is there no German-Colombian/Basque-Colombian/Lebanese-Colombian/etc-Colombian sentiment at all?

[Hash]

Is there no German-Colombian/Basque-Colombian/Lebanese-Colombian/etc-Colombian sentiment at all?

This is an ethnic/racial self-identification map, with five categories to choose from. Those who don't identify with any of these categories (i.e. the vast majority) just identify as 'nota' essentially. The census doesn't otherwise ask for ancestry.

Colombia received significantly less non-Spanish immigration than most other major countries in Latin America, particularly Brazil and Argentina. Arabs (Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians from the Ottoman Empire) were the largest and most significant immigrant community, and they still have a strong influence in the Caribbean region where most settled. Nowadays, most have assimilated to Colombian society very well and many have become successful and prominent businessmen, industrialists, journalists, actors/actresses, politicians (and, seemingly, a lot of beauty queens). While they're still identifiable by their last names, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of ethnic self-identification as a former immigrant community (and certainly none of the hyphenated-American stuff) -- with an exception perhaps for the small, distinct and much less assimilated Muslim Arab community in Maicao (La Guajira). Non-Spanish, post-independence European immigrant groups, who were a tiny drop in the bucket compared to Argentina/Brazil etc., are again still identifiable by their last names and had a non-negligible influence on Colombian history (e.g. read the history of Avianca, or the brewing industry in Colombia, or the guy who wrote the music to the national anthem), but they assimilated to Colombian (majority) society.

Rather than hyphenated-American stuff, you'd find much more in the way of regional sentiment and identification (paisa, costeño, rolo/cachaco, pastuso, valluno, llanero etc.).

Still, it'd be fascinating to have an open-ended ancestry question on a census in Colombia -- it could probably get quite messy.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Is there no German-Colombian/Basque-Colombian/Lebanese-Colombian/etc-Colombian sentiment at all?

This is an ethnic/racial self-identification map, with five categories to choose from. Those who don't identify with any of these categories (i.e. the vast majority) just identify as 'nota' essentially. The census doesn't otherwise ask for ancestry.

Colombia received significantly less non-Spanish immigration than most other major countries in Latin America, particularly Brazil and Argentina. Arabs (Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians from the Ottoman Empire) were the largest and most significant immigrant community, and they still have a strong influence in the Caribbean region where most settled. Nowadays, most have assimilated to Colombian society very well and many have become successful and prominent businessmen, industrialists, journalists, actors/actresses, politicians (and, seemingly, a lot of beauty queens). While they're still identifiable by their last names, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of ethnic self-identification as a former immigrant community (and certainly none of the hyphenated-American stuff) -- with an exception perhaps for the small, distinct and much less assimilated Muslim Arab community in Maicao (La Guajira). Non-Spanish, post-independence European immigrant groups, who were a tiny drop in the bucket compared to Argentina/Brazil etc., are again still identifiable by their last names and had a non-negligible influence on Colombian history (e.g. read the history of Avianca, or the brewing industry in Colombia, or the guy who wrote the music to the national anthem), but they assimilated to Colombian (majority) society.

Rather than hyphenated-American stuff, you'd find much more in the way of regional sentiment and identification.

Still, it'd be fascinating to have an open-ended ancestry question on a census in Colombia -- it could probably get quite messy.

Wasn't there a big Basque influence on Colombia too?

[Hash]

Yes, there was a huge Basque influence in Colombia - particularly Antioquia - and a bunch of Colombians have Basque ancestry (some/a lot probably unaware of it).