According to itypetravel, the Indian population of Guatemala is made up of descendants of the Maya who, in different waves, occupied the country starting from the century. III d. C., overlapping the pre-existing caribs. One of the main Mayan groups was that of the Quiché, who occupied the Petén; the other groups preferred the tierras templadas. When the Spaniards arrived, the other lands were well populated; they became even more so after the conquistadors they made it their settlement area, attracted by the mild and healthy climate, by the extremely fertile lands, by the abundant availability of Indian labor. Antigua became the capital of the entire Isthmian area and the pivot of the entire territorial organization imposed by the colonial rule between Mexico and Colombia. However, there was no large immigration of Spaniards in Guatemala, both because the mineral resources did not seem abundant, and because the Indian population was already numerous. This explains why the percentage of pure Indians is higher in Guatemala than in the rest of Isthmian America (39.5% of the total in 2013). On the other hand, the Creole fraction – descendant of the conquistadors and those encomenderos – is small who imposed an aristocratic and landowner regime in the country – as well as the European one. The ladinos, that is the mestizos, who largely hold the levers of public life, are approx. 60.4%. Minorities of zambos (crosses of blacks and indios), blacks and mulattoes they are found on the coasts, Caribbean species. These percentages do not seem to change much over time: however the ladinos are the most vibrant demographically group, while the Indians, who also have a high birth rate, are subject to higher mortality rates. Indigenous communities, already tried by the years of the civil war, have never obtained full and real recognition of their rights and continue to remain the object of social and political discrimination.

Despite the international resonance of the Guatemalan indigenous question, passed through the awareness work of the Nobel Peace Prize winner R. Menchú, at the national level, the Indians encounter obstacles in the expression of their religion, are excluded from the judicial system and their lands are regularly expropriated in favor of the mining industries. 75% of children and adolescents in these communities live in a situation of poverty and the values ​​relating to malnutrition (which is chronic as regards childhood) are higher than the national average. In the nineteenth century. the country did not count more than 400,000 residents; in 1921, the year of the first census, there were less than 2 million residents, which became 2.8 million at the 1950 census. In 1960, however, the residents had increased by almost half, to then rise to 5.4 million in 1975. According to 2006 estimates, the country, which is just over 12 million residents, it has a very high birth rate and a high infant mortality rate. Guatemala is one of the American countries with the youngest population (about 41% of the residents are under the age of 15) but there is no real legislation on children; among the most worrying data are those relating to child labor and youth mortality: it is estimated that over 500,000 children between 7 and 14 years of age work while the major cause of death among adolescents is firearms. Ruled for forty years by military governments, since the early 1960s Guatemala has been affected by a guerrilla war that has found a wide following and consensus especially among the Indian population.

The harsh repression by the military has resulted in over 200,000 deaths and 1 million refugees. During the long years of civil war, thousands of Guatemalans have found refuge in other countries, notably Mexico, the United States and Canada. At the end of the 1990s, some of them, together with many of the refugees displaced in other areas of the country, returned to their places of origin. However, the migratory balance remains negative (-2.26 ‰, 2008 estimate) despite Guatemala in the past welcoming groups of refugees from El Salvador and Nicaragua. The urban population does not reach 50% and is mostly made up of ladinos. On the other lands the peasants are almost all Indians, who live on small or very small properties. The average population density is 142 residents / km², but the differences between the area and the area are considerable. The basins of the high volcanic lands are very populated, Guatemala, the department of the capital, that of Sacatepéquez, that of Quetzaltenango. The Pacific coastline, once sparsely populated, is now subject to a more extensive enhancement and in the last decades of the twentieth century. it has seen its residents grow considerably; still sparsely populated the whole slope that slopes towards the Gulf of Honduras remains; this is even more true for the Petén. Clearly coordinating center of Guatemalan geography and economy is the capital, (a city of large proportions considering the urban agglomeration), rich in historical buildings, especially religious ones; it arose in 1776 not far from the ancient Spanish capital, Antigua, destroyed by the Agua volcano, in a favorable position in a very fertile basin, well connected both with the Gulf of Honduras and with the Pacific coast. Its suburbs have incorporated other populous municipalities such as Mixco and Villa Nueva. The hub of the north-western section of the plateau is Quetzaltenango, linked to the Pan-American Carretera that connects Guatemala to Mexico. A city in continuous growth, due to its lively industrial and commercial activities, is Escuintla, which acts as a mediator between the capital and the Pacific coast. Several ports overlook this; the largest is Puerto San José, connected by rail to Guatemala. On the Caribbean coast, the main outlet is Puerto Barrios also joined by rail to the capital. In this mesh of major cities, hierarchized from Guatemala, there are towns and large centers with more or less extensive functions, often district capitals, generally with 10-20,000 residents. Still below there are rural centers with a few thousand residents, pivots of agricultural territories scattered with pueblos, Indian villages.