Guatemala is a multicultural society, though most Guatemalans have varying degrees of European (predominantly Spaniards) and Amerindian ancestry.

Transportation, communications, business, politics, and the most relevant urban activity takes place in Guatemala City.

[8] This is the lowest median age of any country in the Western Hemisphere and comparable to most of central Africa and Iraq.

[18] The difficulty in getting accurate counts for Guatemalans abroad is because many of them are refugee claimants awaiting determination of their status.

[19] Emigration to the United States of America has led to the growth of Guatemalan communities in California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Rhode Island and elsewhere since the 1970s.

Many Europeans who emigrated to Guatemala were politicians, refugees, families, entrepreneurs and mainly settlers, Guatemala had long been the Central American country that received the most immigrants, behind Costa Rica for 1950, that does not mean that the country no longer receive large numbers of immigrants.

[clarification needed] From the 1890s there have been small communities of Asians (in particular from Korea, China, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines) but in recent decades this has been growing.

The Guatemalan cuisine reflects the multicultural nature of Guatemala, in that it involves food that differs in taste depending on the region.

Antigua's candy is very popular when tourists visit the country for the first time, and is a great choice in the search for new and interesting flavors.

Many traditional foods are based on Maya cuisine and prominently feature corn, chilis and beans as key ingredients.

They key variations are what is in the masa or dough (maize, potatoes, rice), what's in the filling (meat, fruits, nuts), and what is it wrapped with (leaves, husks).

Guatemala's national instrument is the marimba, an idiophone from the family of the xylophones, which is played all over the country, even in the remotest corners.

The Garifuna people of Afro-Caribbean descent, who are spread thinly on the northeastern Caribbean coast, have their own distinct varieties of popular and folk music.

Cumbia, from the Colombian variety, is also very popular, especially among the lower classes.The Guatemala National Prize in Literature is a one-time only award that recognizes an individual writer's body of work.

However, the practice of Protestantism has increased markedly in recent decades, with nearly one third of Guatemalans identifying themselves as Protestants, chiefly Evangelicals and Pentecostals.

Growth is particularly strong among the ethnic Mayan population, with National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala being an important denomination, maintaining 11 indigenous-language Presbyteries.

The government has instituted a policy of providing altars at every Mayan ruin found in the country, so traditional ceremonies may be performed there.