Peru

This article is about the country in South America. For other uses, see Peru (disambiguation).

Republic of Peru
República del Perú (Spanish)
Co-official names[a]
Motto: "Firme y feliz por la unión" (Spanish)
"Firm and Happy for the Union"
Anthem: "Himno Nacional del Perú" (Spanish)
"National Anthem of Peru"
March: 
"Marcha de Banderas" (Spanish)
"March of Flags"
National seal
Gran Sello del Estado (Spanish)
Great Seal of the State
Location of Peru (dark green)
Location of Peru (dark green)
Capital
and largest city
Lima
12°2.6′S 77°1.7′W / 12.0433°S 77.0283°W / -12.0433; -77.0283
Official languagesSpanish
Co-official languages[b]
Ethnic groups
(2017)[c]
Religion
(2017[d])[1]
  • 5.1% no religion
  • 0.4% other
Demonym(s)Peruvian
GovernmentUnitary semi-presidential republic[2][3]
• President
Dina Boluarte
Vacant
Gustavo Adrianzén
Eduardo Salhuana
LegislatureCongress of the Republic
Independence 
from Spain
• Declared
28 July 1821
9 December 1824
• Recognized
14 August 1879
Area
• Total
1,285,216[4][5] km2 (496,225 sq mi) (19th)
• Water (%)
0.41
Population
• 2023 estimate
34,352,720[5] (43rd)
• Density
23/km2 (59.6/sq mi) (197th)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $566.582 billion[6] (45th)
• Per capita
Increase $16,631[6] (97th)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $282.458 billion[6] (49th)
• Per capita
Increase $8,291[6] (86th)
Gini (2021)Positive decrease 40.2[7]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Increase 0.762[8]
high (87th)
CurrencyPeruvian sol (PEN)
Time zoneUTC−5 (PET)
Date formatdd/mm/yyyy (CE)
Drives onright
Calling code+51
ISO 3166 codePE
Internet TLD.pe

Peru,[e] officially the Republic of Peru,[f] is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country, with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west, to the peaks of the Andes mountains extending from the north to the southeast of the country, to the tropical Amazon basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon River.[10] Peru has a population of over 32 million, and its capital and largest city is Lima. At 1,285,216 km2 (496,225 sq mi), Peru is the 19th largest country in the world, and the third largest in South America.

Peruvian territory was home to several cultures during the ancient and medieval periods, and has one of the longest histories of civilization of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 10th millennium BCE. Notable pre-colonial cultures and civilizations include the Caral–Supe civilization (the earliest civilization in the Americas and considered one of the cradles of civilization), the Nazca culture, the Wari and Tiwanaku empires, the Kingdom of Cusco, and the Inca Empire, the largest known state in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and Charles V established a viceroyalty with the official name of the Kingdom of Peru that encompassed most of its South American territories, with its capital in Lima.[11] Higher education started in the Americas with the official establishment of the National University of San Marcos in Lima in 1551.

Peru formally proclaimed independence from Spain in 1821, and following the military campaigns of Bernardo O'Higgins, José de San Martín, and Simón Bolívar, as well as the decisive battle of Ayacucho, it completed its independence in 1824. In the ensuing years, the country first suffered from political instability until a period of relative economic and political stability began due to the exploitation of guano that ended with the War of the Pacific (1879–1884). Throughout the 20th century, Peru grappled with political and social instability, including the internal conflict between the state and guerrilla groups, interspersed with periods of economic growth. Implementation of Plan Verde[12][13] shifted Peru towards neoliberal economics under the authoritarian rule of Alberto Fujimori and Vladimiro Montesinos in the 1990s, with the former's political ideology of Fujimorism leaving a lasting imprint on the country's governance that continues to present day.[14][15] The 2000s marked economic expansion and poverty reduction, but the subsequent decade revealed long-existing sociopolitical vulnerabilities, exacerbated by a political crisis instigated by Congress and the COVID-19 pandemic, precipitating the period of unrest beginning in 2022.[16]

The sovereign state of Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, along with other growing sectors such as telecommunications and biotechnology.[17] The country forms part of The Pacific Pumas, a political and economic grouping of countries along Latin America's Pacific coast that share common trends of positive growth, stable macroeconomic foundations, improved governance and an openness to global integration. Peru ranks high in social freedom;[18] it is an active member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Alliance, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the World Trade Organization; and is considered as a middle power.[19]

Peru's population includes Mestizos, Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechuan languages, Aymara, or other Indigenous languages. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico" (PDF). Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática. p. 231. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 February 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Draft was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dual was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Peru". Central Intelligence Agency. 27 February 2023. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2023 – via CIA.gov.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference IfKRF was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference IMFWEO.PE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Gini Index". World Bank. Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  8. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  9. ^ Quechua name used by government of Peru is Perú (see Quechua-language version of Peru Parliament website Archived 30 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine and Quechua-language version of Peru Constitution but common Quechua name is Piruw
  10. ^ "Perú: País megadiverso" [Peru: Megadiverse country] (PDF) (in Spanish). Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 June 2014.
  11. ^ Wilmer Angel, Aguilar Pereda (2019). "Establecimiento y organización del virreinato del Perú". Universidad Nacional de Trujillo. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  12. ^ Back, Michele; Zavala, Virginia (2018). Racialization and Language: Interdisciplinary Perspectives From Perú. Routledge. pp. 286–291. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021. At the end of the 1980s, a group of military elites secretly developed an analysis of Peruvian society called El cuaderno verde. This analysis established the policies that the following government would have to carry out in order to defeat Shining Path and rescue the Peruvian economy from the deep crisis in which it found itself. El cuaderno verde was passed onto the national press in 1993, after some of these policies were enacted by President Fujimori.
  13. ^ Alfredo Schulte-Bockholt (2006). "Chapter 5: Elites, Cocaine, and Power in Colombia and Peru". The politics of organized crime and the organized crime of politics: a study in criminal power. Lexington Books. pp. 114–118. ISBN 978-0-7391-1358-5. important members of the officer corps, particularly within the army, had been contemplating a military coup and the establishment of an authoritarian regime, or a so-called directed democracy. The project was known as 'Plan Verde', the Green Plan. ... Fujimori essentially adopted the Green Plan and the military became a partner in the regime. ... The self-coup, of April 5, 1992, dissolved the Congress and the country's constitution and allowed for the implementation of the most important components of the Green Plan
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Villalba-2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Asensio, Raúl; Camacho, Gabriela; González, Natalia; Grompone, Romeo; Pajuelo Teves, Ramón; Peña Jimenez, Omayra; Moscoso, Macarena; Vásquez, Yerel; Sosa Villagarcia, Paolo (August 2021). El Profe: Cómo Pedro Castillo se convirtió en presidente del Perú y qué pasará a continuación (in Spanish) (1 ed.). Lima, Peru: Institute of Peruvian Studies. p. 92. ISBN 978-612-326-084-2. Archived from the original on 5 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Banda-2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ David E. Castro Garro. "Módulo de capacitación en recursos genéticos y bioseguridad" [Training module on genetic resources and biosafety] (PDF) (in Spanish). Ministerio de Ambiente de la República de Perú. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2018.
  18. ^ "Freedom in the World 2017 – Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy" Archived 27 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine by Freedom House, 31 January 2017
  19. ^ McKercher, B. J. C. (2012). Routledge Handbook of Diplomacy and Statecraft. Routledge. ISBN 9781136664366. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020. a Middle Power like Peru lack the diplomatic and other resources...