Ecuador
Name
| Official name | Republic of Ecuador — República del Ecuador |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Real Audiencia of Quito (1563–1822); the District of the South within Gran Colombia (1822–1830) |
| Demonym | Ecuadorian; ecuatoriano, ecuatoriana |
| Meaning of the name | "Equator" — for the line that crosses the country, fixed by the French geodesic mission of 1736–44; the only country named for a feature of geography |
| Motto | "Dios, patria y libertad" — God, homeland and liberty; on the arms |
Quick facts
| Capital | Quito — San Francisco de Quito — founded 6 December 1534; at 2,850 m, the second-highest capital in the world; about 2 million |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Guayaquil, about 2.7 million, the port; Quito; Cuenca; Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas; Machala; Durán; Manta; Portoviejo; Ambato |
| Official languages | Spanish; Kichwa and Shuar official for intercultural relations under the Constitution of 2008; some 14 Indigenous languages |
| Currency | United States dollar — USD, $ — since 9 January 2000, with Ecuadorian centavo coins; the sucre before |
| Time zones | Ecuador Time, UTC−5; Galápagos Time, UTC−6; no daylight saving |
| Calling code | +593 |
| Internet domain | .ec |
| ISO 3166 codes | EC · ECU · 218 |
| Vehicle registration code | EC |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 120 V, 60 Hz; plug types A and B |
| Independence | 24 May 1822, at the Battle of Pichincha, from Spain; the first cry of independence 10 August 1809; the republic 13 May 1830 |
| National days | 10 August, Independence Day — the first cry of 1809; 24 May, the Battle of Pichincha; 9 October, the independence of Guayaquil, 1820; 3 November, the independence of Cuenca; 12 October, the Day of Interculturality |
| Constitution | 20 October 2008 — approved by referendum 28 September 2008, the twentieth since 1830; the first in the world to recognize the rights of nature; amended 2015, 2018 and 2024 |
| Population | 16,938,986 at the census of 2022; about 18 million (INEC, 2025 est.) |
| Area | 283,561 km² (109,484 sq mi) — land 276,841 km², water 6,720 km²; the Galápagos 8,010 km² of it |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A horizontal tricolor of yellow, blue and red, the yellow twice the width of the others — the gold of the land, the sea and sky, and the blood of the patriots — with the coat of arms at the center, the colors of Miranda's Gran Colombia; adopted 26 September 1860, the arms added 1900.Flag of Ecuador |
|---|---|
| Coat of arms | An oval with Chimborazo under the sun and the zodiac signs of March to June, the Guayas River and the steamship Guayas of 1841, the condor above with wings spread, four flags and the fasces below — adopted 31 October 1900 |
| National anthem | "¡Salve, Oh Patria!" — words by Juan León Mera, 1865, music by Antonio Neumane, 1870; official by decree 1948 |
| National motto | "Dios, patria y libertad" |
| National colors | Yellow, blue and red |
| National bird | The Andean condor — on the arms; about 150 left in the country |
| National flower | The chuquiragua — Chuquiraga jussieui, the flower of the Andes above 3,000 m; widely cited; the rose the great export, none designated |
| National tree | The cinchona — cascarilla, the quinine tree of Loja; widely cited |
| National hat | The Panama hat — the toquilla straw hat of Montecristi and Cuenca, misnamed for the canal through which it was shipped; inscribed by UNESCO in 2012 |
| National dish | Encebollado; ceviche; hornado; locro de papa; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, arms and anthem are fixed by law; the hat by UNESCO listing; the bird, flower, tree and dishes widely cited |
Geography
| Location | The northwest of South America, on the equator — the Pacific coast between Colombia and Peru; the Galápagos 1,000 km west |
|---|---|
| Land borders | 2,237 km (1,390 mi) with two countries |
| Border with Peru | 1,529 km (950 mi) — fought over in 1941, 1981 and 1995, settled by the peace of 26 October 1998 |
| Border with Colombia | 708 km (440 mi) |
| Coastline | 2,237 km (1,390 mi) — the same figure as the borders, by coincidence |
| Highest point | Chimborazo, 6,263 m (20,548 ft) — the farthest point from the center of the earth |
| Lowest point | The Pacific Ocean, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 1,117 m (3,665 ft) |
| Volcanoes | Some 30 active or dormant — Cotopaxi, 5,897 m, erupting in 2015 and 2022; Sangay, in constant eruption; Tungurahua; Reventador; Cayambe, the one snow-capped peak on the equator; the Avenue of the Volcanoes |
| Major rivers | The Guayas, the largest system on the Pacific side of South America, to Guayaquil; the Esmeraldas; the Napo, the Pastaza and the Putumayo east to the Amazon |
| The Galápagos | 13 large islands and hundreds of islets, 8,010 km², 1,000 km off the coast — Darwin's laboratory of 1835, with the giant tortoises, marine iguanas and finches; a national park since 1959, a World Heritage site since 1978, about 30,000 residents |
| Terrain | The Costa, the coastal plain; the Sierra, two parallel Andean ranges with the inter-Andean valley between; the Oriente, the Amazon lowlands — half the country and 5% of its people; the Galápagos |
| Climate | Tropical on the coast and in the Amazon; temperate in the Sierra by altitude — Quito's eternal spring; dry in the Galápagos; El Niño on the coast |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes — Manabí, 16 April 2016, magnitude 7.8, about 670 dead; volcanoes; floods and landslides; El Niño; the drought of 2024 that emptied the hydropower reservoirs and cut power for up to fourteen hours a day |
| Natural resources | Oil in the Amazon, gold and copper, fish, timber, hydropower; the farmland of the coast |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 30%; forest about 50% |
| National parks | 11 — the Galápagos; Yasuní, the most biodiverse place on earth by several counts; Sangay; Cotopaxi; Cajas; Podocarpus; Machalilla on the coast |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 5 — the Galápagos Islands and the City of Quito (1978, among the first twelve sites ever inscribed); Sangay National Park (1983); the historic center of Cuenca (1999); the Qhapaq Ñan Inca road (2014, shared) |
| Administrative divisions | 24 provinces — the Galápagos among them — 221 cantons and some 1,500 parishes; four regions by geography |
People
| Population | 16,938,986 (census of 2022); about 18 million (2025 est.) |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 63 per km² (165 per sq mi) — the Amazon nearly empty |
| Population growth | About 1% a year |
| Median age | About 29 years |
| Life expectancy | About 77 years |
| Fertility rate | About 2 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 65% |
| Adult literacy | About 94% |
| Ethnic groups | Mestizo about 78%; Indigenous about 8% — the Kichwa of the Sierra, the Shuar, the Waorani and others of the Amazon; Afro-Ecuadorian about 5%, in Esmeraldas and the Chota; Montubio about 8%, the coastal countrymen; white about 2% (census of 2022) |
| Languages | Spanish by 93%; Kichwa by about 4%; Shuar and a dozen others; English in business |
| Religion | Roman Catholic about 69%; Protestant and evangelical about 15%; no religion about 8% |
| Migration | About 500,000 Venezuelans since 2015; some 1.5 million Ecuadorians emigrated after the crisis of 1999, to Spain, the United States and Italy, and a new wave since 2021 north through the Darién |
| Human Development Index | 0.777 (2023 data, 2025 report) — high; about 85th of 193 |
| Sport | Football — La Tri at four World Cups, the round of 16 in 2006; cycling — Richard Carapaz's Giro of 2019 and Olympic road gold of 2020; race walking — Jefferson Pérez's gold of 1996, the country's first; Neisi Dajomes and Daniel Pintado |
| Diaspora | About 1.5 million abroad — in the United States, Spain, Italy and Chile |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary presidential republic under the Constitution of 2008 — the president head of state and government, elected for four years, once re-electable |
|---|---|
| President | Daniel Noboa (National Democratic Action), since 23 November 2023 — the 48th; the son of the banana magnate Álvaro Noboa, born 30 November 1987 in Miami; elected at 35 in the runoff of 15 October 2023 to finish the term of Guillermo Lasso, who had dissolved the Assembly, and re-elected 13 April 2025 with 55.6% against Luisa González's 44.4%; his full term from 24 May 2025 to 2029 |
| Vice President | María José Pinto (National Democratic Action), since 24 May 2025 — after Verónica Abad, elected with Noboa in 2023 and removed in a two-year quarrel |
| The 2025 election | The first round of 9 February 2025: Noboa 44.2%, González 44.0% — a difference of 0.2 points; the runoff of 13 April 2025: Noboa 55.6%, González 44.4%, who alleged fraud without evidence accepted by observers; the Assembly of 151 elected with the first round, Noboa's ADN the largest bloc |
| The referendum of 2025 | Held 16 November 2025: all four questions rejected by about 60% — foreign military bases, banned by the Constitution since 2009; a constituent assembly to replace the Constitution of 2008; the cut of the Assembly from 151 to 73; the end of state funding for parties — the president's first electoral defeat, after the 31-day national strike of the Indigenous confederation CONAIE in September and October over the end of the diesel subsidy |
| Parliament | The National Assembly — 151 members elected for four years, provincial, national and diaspora seats |
| The next elections | The local elections of 29 November 2027; the general election of February 2029 |
| Security | A state of internal armed conflict declared 9 January 2024 against 22 named gangs — Los Choneros, Los Lobos and the rest — with the armed forces in the streets and prisons; the homicide rate from about 6 per 100,000 in 2018 to a record 51 per 100,000 in 2025, the highest in Latin America; the assassination of the candidate Fernando Villavicencio on 9 August 2023; the prison massacres since 2020; the FBI's estimate of March 2026 that about 70% of the world's cocaine ships from Ecuadorian ports; the referendum of April 2024 approving nine security measures including extradition |
| The cabinet cuts | Executive orders of 2025 and 2026 eliminating 5,000 public jobs and cutting the ministries from 14 to 10; the phased end of the fuel subsidies of the 1970s |
| Legal system | Civil law; the Constitutional Court and the National Court of Justice; the National Electoral Council |
| Provinces | 24, each with an elected prefect; the Galápagos under a governing council |
| Relations | Close to the United States under Noboa — security cooperation and the visits of 2025; the raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito on 5 April 2024 to seize Jorge Glas, which broke relations with Mexico; the trade agreement with China of 2024; the Yasuní referendum of 20 August 2023 halting oil drilling in the ITT block by 59% |
| United Nations | Member since 21 December 1945 |
| Memberships | The OAS, the Andean Community, the Pacific Alliance as an associate, CELAC, the WTO; left OPEC in 2020 |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$125 billion (2025, IMF) |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$7,000 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$16,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 3% in 2025 after a contraction of 2% in 2024 from the drought and the blackouts; an IMF program of US$4 billion since 2024 |
| Economy by sector | Services about 55%, industry about 33%, agriculture about 10% |
| Currency | United States dollar (USD) |
| Shrimp | The largest exporter in the world since 2023 — about US$7 billion a year, more than oil, from the ponds of the Guayas and El Oro |
| Bananas | The largest exporter in the world for decades — about a quarter of the world's trade; Dole, Chiquita and the Noboa family's Bonita |
| Oil | From the Amazon since 1972 — about 475,000 barrels a day, falling; Petroecuador and the SOTE pipeline over the Andes; the Yasuní ITT field to be closed after the referendum of 2023 |
| Other exports | Cacao — the largest producer of fine-flavor cocoa; roses — the third-largest exporter, from the equatorial highlands; tuna from Manta; gold and copper from Fruta del Norte and Mirador; Panama hats |
| Trade partners | The United States about a quarter of exports; China, Panama, Chile, Peru, the European Union; free-trade agreements with the EU, China and Canada |
| Energy | Hydropower about 75% of electricity — Coca Codo Sinclair the largest plant; the drought of 2024 and the fourteen-hour blackouts, ended in 2025 |
| Income classification | Upper-middle income (World Bank) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Mariscal Sucre International at Quito, opened 2013 at Tababela; José Joaquín de Olmedo at Guayaquil; Cuenca; Manta; Baltra and San Cristóbal in the Galápagos |
|---|---|
| Airlines | LATAM Ecuador and Avianca Ecuador; no state carrier since TAME closed in 2020 |
| Main ports | Guayaquil, through which about 70% of trade passes; Posorja, the deep-water port of DP World since 2019; Manta; Esmeraldas for oil |
| Railways | The Quito Metro, one line of 22 km, opened December 2023 — the country's only urban rail; the tourist railway of the Devil's Nose, largely suspended since 2020 |
| Roads | About 43,000 km (26,700 mi); the Pan-American Highway down the Sierra; the coastal highway; the Troncal Amazónica |
| The line | The Mitad del Mundo monument north of Quito, on the equator — a few hundred meters off the true line, which GPS put at the Intiñan museum |
History in dates
| c. 3500 BC | The Valdivia culture on the coast — among the oldest pottery in the Americas |
|---|---|
| 1460s | The Incas conquer the highlands; Quito the northern capital under Huayna Cápac |
| 1534 | Quito refounded by Sebastián de Benalcázar, 6 December |
| 1736 | The French geodesic mission measures the equator |
| 1809 | The first cry of independence at Quito, 10 August |
| 1822 | The Battle of Pichincha, 24 May — Sucre frees Quito; Gran Colombia |
| 1830 | The Republic of Ecuador, 13 May |
| 1832 | The Galápagos annexed, 12 February |
| 1835 | Darwin in the Galápagos, September–October |
| 1895 | The Liberal Revolution of Eloy Alfaro |
| 1941 | The war with Peru; the Rio Protocol |
| 1972 | The first oil from the Amazon |
| 1979 | The return to democracy |
| 1998 | Peace with Peru, 26 October |
| 2000 | Dollarization, 9 January |
| 2007–2017 | Rafael Correa's Citizen Revolution; the Constitution of 2008 |
| 2016 | The Manabí earthquake, 16 April |
| 2023 | The Yasuní referendum, 20 August; Villavicencio assassinated, 9 August; Daniel Noboa president, 23 November |
| 2024 | The internal armed conflict declared, 9 January; the embassy raid, 5 April; the blackouts |
| 2025 | Noboa re-elected, 13 April; the strike; the referendum lost, 16 November |
Records & firsts
| The closest point to the sun | The summit of Chimborazo |
|---|---|
| A country named for the equator | The only one |
| The first constitution with the rights of nature | 2008 |
| The largest banana exporter | A quarter of the world's trade |
| The largest shrimp exporter | Since 2023 |
| Darwin's islands | The Galápagos, 1835 |
| Among the first World Heritage sites | Quito and the Galápagos, 1978 |
| The Panama hat | Made in Ecuador |
| The second-highest capital | Quito, 2,850 m |
| The youngest president | Daniel Noboa, at 35 |
| The first vote to leave oil in the ground | Yasuní, 2023 |
| Cotopaxi | Among the highest active volcanoes on earth |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Ecuador?
The Republic of Ecuador — República del Ecuador — since 13 May 1830, when the District of the South left Bolívar's Gran Colombia. The name is Spanish for "equator," from the French geodesic mission of 1736 that came to Quito to measure the shape of the earth on the line that runs through the country; the country is the only one in the world named for a feature of geography. Before 1830 it was the Real Audiencia of Quito, and before the Spanish the northern realm of the Incas.
What is the capital of Ecuador?
Quito — San Francisco de Quito — in a valley of the Andes at 2,850 m, the second-highest capital in the world after La Paz and the first city inscribed by UNESCO, in 1978, for its colonial center; about 2 million people in the city and 3 million in its district. Guayaquil on the Guayas estuary is the largest city, with about 2.7 million, and the port through which most of the country's trade passes; Cuenca, Santo Domingo, Machala and Manta follow.
How big is Ecuador, and how many people live there?
About 283,561 km² (109,484 sq mi) — a little larger than the United Kingdom, about the size of Colorado — in four regions: the Pacific coast, the Andean highlands, the Amazon, and the Galápagos Islands 1,000 km out at sea. The census of 2022 counted 16,938,986 people; INEC estimates about 18 million for 2025. The country calls itself the most biodiverse on earth for its size, with more bird species per square kilometer than any other.
What are the highest and lowest points of Ecuador?
Chimborazo, 6,263 m (20,548 ft), an inactive volcano in the central Andes — and, because the earth bulges at the equator, its summit is the farthest point on the planet's surface from the center of the earth and the closest to the sun, 2 km beyond Everest by that measure; and the Pacific Ocean. Cotopaxi, 5,897 m, is among the highest active volcanoes in the world, and the Avenue of the Volcanoes runs between Quito and Riobamba.
What currency does Ecuador use?
The United States dollar (ISO code USD, $), the sole legal tender since 9 January 2000, when the sucre collapsed and the country adopted the dollar outright; Ecuador mints its own centavo coins. Clocks keep Ecuador Time, UTC−5, on the mainland and UTC−6 in the Galápagos, with no daylight saving.
Who governs Ecuador?
President Daniel Noboa of National Democratic Action, the 48th president, in office since 23 November 2023 — elected at 35, the youngest president in the country's history, to finish a dissolved term — and re-elected on 13 April 2025 with 55.6 percent against Luisa González for a full term to 2029, with María José Pinto as vice president. He governs under a state of internal armed conflict declared in January 2024 against the drug gangs, and lost his first vote in November 2025, when the electorate rejected all four questions of his referendum, foreign military bases and a constituent assembly among them. The National Assembly of 151 members was elected with him in February 2025; local elections are due in November 2027 and the general election in February 2029.
World knowledge, A to Z — the flags of every country, the sciences, places, people and more.
We Value Your Opinion Comments