AGBICULTUEAL SURVEY OF SOUTH AMERICA 
27 
Indians. In 1702 negroes were first brought into the country as 
slaves. Their importation was prohibited in 1825 and they were 
declared free in 1853. The first authoritative estimate of population 
was given by Azara for 1797, 217 years after the third founding of 
Buenos Aires. His estimate of the total population in that year 
was 310,628. The next estimate is 22 years later by La Fuento, who 
gave the total population as 527,000 Argentines and 175,000 Indians. 
The last census of 1914 showed a total population of 8,092,216, of 
which 5,527,285, or 68.3 per cent were Argentines, 2,357,952 or 29.1 
per cent were foreigners, and 206,979 was estimated as the number of 
Indians. Of this total 57.4 per cent lived in cities and towns and 
only 42.6 per cent in the country. About one-fifth of the total popu- 
lation lived in the capital city of Buenos Aires. By nationalities, the 
population in 1914 is shown in Table 5. 
Table 5. — Aregntina: Nationality of population, 1895 and 1914- 
Nationality 
1895 
census 
1914 
census 
Nationality 
1895 
census 
1914 
census 
Argentine 
Per cent 
74.6 
Per cent 
68.3 
2.6 
11.5 
10.2 
1.2 
1.1 
1.0 
.8 
.5 
.4 
Foreign — Continued. 
Chilean 
Per cent 
Per cent 
.4 
Paraguayan 
.3 
12.5 
5.0 
English ... . . .. . 
.3 
.3 
Spanish 
Bolivian .. .... 
.2 
Swiss . 
.2 
1.2 
2.4 
Portuguese. . . ... 
.2 
French.. . .... 
Other 
4.3 
.5 
Total foreign 
Austro-Hungarian _ 
25.4 
100.0 
29.1 
Total native and foreign 
100.0 
The number of immigrants in the early years of the Republic is not 
known, but from 1857 to 1914 there arrived 4,665,723 and departed 
1,625,721, leaving the net immigration in the period of 57 years at 
3,040,002, or an average of little more than 50,000 per annum. In 
1923 about 195,000 immigrants were received. It seems likely that 
this number will be greatly exceeded in the near future because of 
the restrictions on immigration to the United States and the fact that 
Argentina is now one of the most promising countries in the world 
for European emigrants. The need for population in Argentina is so 
apparent that in 1924 the Minister of Argentina spent some months 
in Europe with a view to encouraging emigration to Argentina. 
The census figures, so far as available, are presented in Tables 6 to 11. 
