Cuenca is a
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
of
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
, located in the
Azuay Province
Azuay (, ), Province of Azuay is a province of Ecuador, created on 25 June 1824. It encompasses an area of . Its capital and largest city is Cuenca. It is located in the south center of Ecuador in the highlands. Its mountains reach above sea le ...
. Its capital is the town of
Cuenca
Cuenca may refer to:
People
* Cuenca (surname)
Places
Ecuador
* Cuenca Canton, in the Azuay Province
** Cuenca, Ecuador, capital of Cuenca Canton and Azuay Province
** Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cuenca
Peru
* Cuenca District, Huarochirí ...
. During the census of 2001 the canton had 417,632 inhabitants and in 2010 it had 505,585 inhabitants.
[Somos 14.483.499 de ecuatorianas y ecuatorianos, según el censo]
(Spanish)
Toponymy
The city is named after Santa Ana of the 4 Rivers of Cuenca in honor of the city of Cuenca in Spain, the birthplace of the Spanish viceroy of Peru Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, who was the one who sent Spanish Gil Ramírez Dávalos to fund the city, and the fact that, this place, in its geographical features are very similar to the Spanish city. In addition, the name includes the fact that four rivers cross it: Tomebamba, Tarqui, Yanuncay and Machángara. The rest of the name comes from the Spanish tradition of dedicating to the new cities a saint of the Catholic church, in this case Santa Ana.
Demographics
Ethnic groups as of the
Ecuadorian census The Ecuadorian census is conducted by the governmental institution known as ''INEC'', ''Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos'' (National Institute of Statistics and Census).INEC The census in Ecuador is conducted every 10 years, and its obj ...
of 2010:
*
Mestizo
( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...
89.7%
*
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
5.7%
*
Afro-Ecuadorian
Afro-Ecuadorians (), also known as Black Ecuadorians (), are Ecuadorians of predominantly Sub-Saharan African descent.
History and background
Most Afro-Ecuadorians are the descendants of enslaved Africans who were transported by predominantly B ...
2.2%
*
Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology)
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
1.8%
*
Montubio
Montubio is the term used to describe the Mestizos in Ecuador, mestizo people of the countryside of coastal Ecuador. The Montubio make up 7.4% of the country's population and were recognized as a distinct ethnicity by the government in the sprin ...
0.4%
*Other 0.2%
Division
The canton is divided into
parishes
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
.
Political Division of Cuenca Canton
(Spanish), retrieved on August 31, 2011 The urban sector of the city of Cuenca is formed by the following 15 parishes:
The rural territory of the canton is divided into 21 parishes:
References
{{Cantons of Ecuador
Cantons of Azuay Province