Introduction

The 2nd General Population and Housing Census (IIRGPH) was held from 1 to 15 August 1997.  It is with great satisfaction that the National Statistics Institute (INE) presents, two years after the census, this publication with the main social and demographic indicators of the country. These data cover a wide range of themes: population in general, fertility, mortality, migration, marital status, households, work force, education, language, nationality, race/origin, religion, physical and mental disability, and housing.

The data are presented in a simple and direct manner. The text that accompanies them attempts to be precise and easy to understand. The purpose of the text is to guide and help the reader in interpreting the data, stressing extreme values, qualifying figures, describing forms of distribution and proposing some explanations.

This publication is part of a series of products of the programme to publicise the results of the IIRGPH. The INE hopes that this publication will be of interest to the users of information