Ethnicity, Language, & Religion of Ecuador
Ethnicity
Almost three quarters of Ecuador's population is mestizo, or a combination of European and indigenous descent. The rest of the people are of various ethnic groups, including wholly European, wholly Amerindian, partly African, and Montubio (a group of people of various ethnicities who identify as a single group).
One of the larger indigenous groups in Ecuador is the Shuar, who live in the Amazon basin. Another significant group are often referred to as Quechua, although this is more accurately a linguistic group; most of the Quechua in Ecuador prefer to be called Kichwas.
Language
Spanish is the only official language in Ecuador, but there are a couple widely spoken indigenous languages, including both Quechua and Shuar. Spanish is a Romance language also spoken in Spain; it is closely related to other Romance languages, including Portuguese, Italian, French, Romanian, others. The dialect of Spanish in Ecuador is quite distinct in comparison to that of Spain and there are also many minor differences in the language across Latin America.