Colombia's population has grown steadily for most of its history, although the growth rate slowed markedly in the late 20th century, due in part to emigration resulting from a sustained internal conflict.

However, the economy has improved noticeably in recent decades, especially in urban areas, and living standards have risen in line with this.

Whites tend to live mainly in urban centers, like Bogotá, Medellín or Cali, and the burgeoning highland cities.

Mestizos include artisans and small tradesmen that have played a major part in the urban expansion of recent decades.

An extraofficial estimate considers that the 49% of the Colombian population is Mestizo or of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, and that approximately 19-37% is White, mainly of Spanish lineage, but there is also a large population of Middle East descent; among the upper class there is a considerable input of Italian ancestry.

[35] The departments of La Guajira, Cauca, Nariño, Córdoba and Sucre have the largest indigenous populations.

The population of the department of Chocó, running along the northern portion of Colombia's Pacific coast, is over 70% black.

A number of other Europeans and North Americans migrated to the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including people from the former USSR during and after the Second World War.

[29] There is a major migration trend of Venezuelans, due to the political crisis and economic collapse in Venezuela.

[43] [44] Spanish (of which Colombia has the third-largest population of speakers in the world after Mexico and the United States) is the official language, with 99.2% of Colombians speaking Spanish, and there are small communities in urban areas speaking other European languages such as German, French, English, Italian, and Portuguese.

While Colombia remains a mostly Roman Catholic country by baptism numbers, the 1991 Colombian constitution guarantees freedom of religion and all religious faiths and churches are equally free before the law.

Historically, a sizable percentage of Colombian emigration has also been motivated by the need to escape from political persecution and bipartisan violence during the periods of "La Violencia" (1948–1958), and later due to the effects of the nation's current conflict (since 1964).

Other Colombians migrated to Canada and Europe (most to Spain, but also to France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden).