According to andyeducation.com, the original populations were, at the time of colonization, in a cultural condition corresponding to the European Neolithic, except for the Diaghiti, sedentary farmers of the North-West, bearers of a civilization similar to that of ancient Peru. The Diaghiti, like the hunters of the Pampas and southern Chaco who adopted the use of the horse (Puelche, Querandí, Mocoví, Abipón), are now extinct, and so are the Araucanians (descended in the 18th century from the Andes to the province of Buenos Aires), as a result of harsh military campaigns during the second half of the 19th century. There are very few residues of Guaraní societies, between Paraná and Uruguay, and of Patagonian and Fuegine societies of the southern territories: in the wooded plains of central and northern Chaco the remains of indigenous societies are more numerous (Mataco, Toba, Pilagá etc.), which retain some original forms of the Chaco culture, with economic prevalence of hunting and fishing, temporary huts, tents and leather cloaks, etc.
In the pre-colonial era the Argentina it had a poor population, because it was unable to exploit the agricultural potential of the territory. Not even the Europeans, at first, showed particular interest in this area, difficult to penetrate (except along the Paraná route) and lacking in mineral wealth. Despite the creation of some strongholds (Santiago del Estero, San Miguel de Tucumán, Córdoba, San Juan, San Luis, still among the major cities of the interior) and the dual foundation of Buenos Aires already in the 16th century., the population of the Argentina it practically only began in the second half of the 19th century, when the industrial revolution created in Europe an ever greater need for food supplies from outside. Accompanied by the progressive extension of the railway network, the colonization of the country attracted immigrants and the residents, who at the beginning of the nineteenth century barely exceeded 300,000 units and at the first official census (1869) were far from 2 million, reaching 8 million in 1914, to arrive at 16 million in 1947 and 40.1 million in the 2010 census.
The most consistent migratory flows came from Italy, which in the period 1857-1929 sent almost 3 million people to Argentina, but considerable Spanish, French, German, Polish, Russian, Arab communities were also formed, while smaller groups came from all over the world. The immigration trend was not constant, both for internal crises and for international contingencies, including the restrictive measures adopted by some of the states towards emigration: thus, in the years 1890-1903 repatriation even exceeded new arrivals, due to the difficult time the primary sector went through, but immediately afterwards (1904-13) an average of 240,000 immigrants per year was reached, which rose to 300,000 in the decade 1921-30. After World War II, the influx from abroad dropped sharply. The result was a rate of demographic increase (1% average per year in the 1998-2003 period) among the lowest in all American countries, with a birth rate of 17.5 ‰ and a death rate of 7.6 ‰; the natural dynamic is now almost entirely responsible for the increase in population and the incidence of migratory movements is almost nil.
The average life expectancy is slightly lower than that of the most advanced countries, having exceeded 75 years (72 for men and 79 for women). The fact that the colonization of the country followed the fan-like expansion of the communication routes, starting from the ‘fulcrum’ of the Río de la Plata, explains the distributional structure of the Argentine population which, compared to an average density of 14.4 residents/km 2, is strongly concentrated in the hinterland of Buenos Aires (where Rosario, Santa Fe and Córdoba have grown enormously) and around some urban nuclei of the north-western regions. The urban population is very large (over 90% in 2003). The gigantism of the federal capital stands out in the urban structure, welcoming in its vast urban agglomeration 12 million residents (in 2007), almost 1/3 of the population of the entire country; but a slow rebalancing is taking place, also as a result of a process of demographic deconcentration hoped for and in part encouraged by the municipal authorities of Bonaire; for the same reasons, the (unrealized) transfer of the federal capital was even planned. However, the asymmetry of the urban network as a whole is evident, very weak in the less inhabited northern and southern areas and in large parts of the Pampa; the Patagonian expanses are almost totally devoid of population (1 residents/km 2), although equipped with huge resources, for the exploitation of which artificial centers have been built, with typical pioneering characteristics. The Catholic religion is dominant.
