Latin America is known for its racial and ethnic diversity. Based on available estimates, about 45 million of the 500 million people in Latin America are indigenous and about 90 million (100 million if we include Haiti) are afro-descendants. This compares to about 40 million U.S. African Americans and 2.5 million American Indians. Although interest in ethnicity and race in Latin America has increased tremendously in the past two decades, our knowledge of the current situation there is scant, especially when compared to the United States. PERLA’s goal is to empirically examine numerous dimensions of race and ethnicity across Latin America. The project is directed by Edward Telles, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and Associate of the Office of Population Research and is being conducted in collaboration with researchers from Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States.
This website is a work in progress. Spanish and Portuguese versions will be available soon.
