Nicaragua has a population of 4,918,393 (2001 estimate). It is among the poorest nations in Central America, a legacy of years of exploitation by dictators, disasters, and devastating civil war. Its people are mostly mestizo (people of mixed European and Native American ancestry), but various minority groups include people of African, Native American, and European descent. traditionally, a small upper class has controlled most of the nation’s land and its economic and political power.

Most Nicaraguans are mestizos, persons of mixed European and American Indian ancestry. blacks and whites are about equal in number, together making up roughly one-fifth of the population. American Indians constitute less than 5 % of the population. The west coast has a small number of Monimbó and Subtiava Indians. Although Spanish-speaking mestizos now constitute the largest single group even on the east coast, the population of that region also includes Miskito, Sumo, and Rama Indians as well as black Caribs, also known as Garifuna (descendants of African slaves and Carib Indians), and Creoles (English-speaking blacks).