With an estimated total population of 48.258 million inhabitants (48.8% men, 51.2% women) and 42.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (as of 2018, date of the latest population census), Colombia is the third most populous country in the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region. The population is growing rapidly but with a decreasing rate and is projected to reach almost 62 million inhabitants by 2050. Half of the population is 26.8 years or younger (as of 2018). The 2018 census reported that whites and mestizo (of mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) constituted 86.2% of the population. The Afro-Colombian population, including blacks, mulattoes (mixed black and white ancestry), and zambos (mixed Amerindian and black ancestry), accounted for 9.34% of the population; the indigenous population for 4.4%; and the gypsy (Rom) population for 0.006%. The official language is Spanish but there are about 500,000 speakers of Amerindian languages, whose numbers are diminishing rapidly [2].

The spatial distribution of the population is highly uneven. Most of the country’s population is concentrated in the Andean highlands and along the Caribbean coast. The expansive eastern and southern llanos and tropical forests are home to less than 10% of the country’s population. The largely urban population reached 77.1% as of 2018. Internal armed conflict as well as the violence generated by the illegal drug-trafficking industry caused massive displacement of the rural population, and many people fled to the cities. Major cities include the capital city, Bogotá (home to over 7.4 million inhabitants, as of 2018), Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, and Cartagena [2], [3].

In 2007, Colombia had the fifth-largest economy in Latin America (after Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Venezuela). It holds substantial petroleum reserves, South America’s most extensive coal reserves, and significant but largely untapped natural gas reserves.

With a Human Development Index of 0.767 and a Gross National Income per capita of $6,570 as of 2019, Colombia is regarded as a high human development, upper middle-income country.

GDP grew by 3.3% in 2019 and was on track to accelerate further in 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy hard, causing the worst recession in almost half a century and GDP shrank by 6.8% in 2020. In 2007, agriculture accounted for 13% of GDP, industry (including manufacturing and construction) for 29%, and services for the remaining 58%. Agriculture is an important source of export earnings and food security in Colombia. Coffee, produced at largely small scales, has long been the backbone of Colombia’s agriculture, and the country is one of the major exporters of coffee in the world. Tropical fruits such as bananas and plantains, along with sugarcane are also important crops. Cattle production is widespread, and the country’s dairy industry is growing. Colombia is one the world’s top exporters of palm oil.

This economic growth and resulting job creation have been the main drivers of Colombia’s impressive progress in poverty reduction. Extreme poverty fell from 17.7% to 8.1% from 2002 to 2014, while general poverty decreased from 49.7% to 28.5%, countrywide, lifting 6.7 million people out of poverty. Nevertheless, poverty rate is still higher than the Latin American average. Large historical disparities persist between urban and rural areas. General/extreme poverty fell from 45.5/12.2 to 24.6/5.1% in urban areas from 2002 to 2014, but only from 61.7/33.1 to 41.4/18% in rural areas.

Colombia’s wealth is heavily concentrated in the country’s capital city, Bogota, and major cities such as Medellin and Cali; most rural regions remain severely underdeveloped, with Choco being the poorest province. The Gini coefficient was 49.7 in 2017, the sixth highest in the LAC region and among the twenty most unequal countries in the world [2], [3].

Colombia currently has decent telecommunication systems and internet services. In 2005, 96.8% of the population had access to electricity (99.3% vs. 88.9% in urban vs. rural areas), fixed telephone services had a coverage of only 18 subscriptions per 100 people, the penetration of cellular phone services was 51.2 subscriptions per 100 people, and only 11% of the population were using the internet. Access to electricity increased to 99.8% (100% vs. 98.8% in urban vs. rural areas), fixed telephone services decreased to 13.9 subscriptions per 100 people, the penetration of cellular phone services increased to 131.7 subscriptions per 100 people, and 65% of the population were using the internet by 2019 [3].

The National Development Plan 2018–2022 aims to increase electricity generation capacity from renewable sources (wind, solar, others) from 22.4 MW to 1,500 MW to mitigate climate change, and expand the electricity grid by including non-conventional energies.

Colombia is highly vulnerable to extreme events, as it routinely experiences damaging droughts and, particularly, floods triggered by La Niña events. Vulnerability hotspots include the Caribbean and the Andean regions, with key sectors including housing, transport, energy, agriculture, and health. For instance, heavy rains in 2010 and 2011 left over $6 billion in damages to crops and infrastructure and displaced many. Highland areas, where most of the population resides, are prone to landslides and floods due to increased surface run off from snow melt and extreme rainfall upon degraded high elevation forests which, additionally, increases sediment loads. Droughts are common between January and March and July and September and can lead to water supply shortages for human and agricultural needs.

El Niño events produce high temperatures and severe droughts, damaging agricultural output and threatening operation of hydroelectric power plants which produce most of the country’s electricity supply.

The last 60 years of Colombia’s history have been marked by armed conflict. First, the unequal distribution of land and the lack of opportunities for political participation gave rise to the use of violence and armed struggle. This escalated later with the emergence of drug trafficking, narco-terrorism, and the entry of new political and armed actors in a context of revolutionary struggle.

The origin of the guerrillas is related to socioeconomic exclusion and the lack of spaces for free political participation. Among the most notorious guerrillas are the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People's Army (FARC-EP), the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), and the April Nineteenth Movement (M-19)). Each movement has responded to a particular political, ideological, and military conception, reflecting the fragmentation of Colombian left.

Paramilitaries are extreme right-wing groups that multiplied in the 1980s as a consequence of the promulgation of Law 48 of 1968 through which the Colombian State allowed the privatization of armed forces at the hands of civilians protected by the interests of regional elites. The paramilitaries spread thanks to the support of wealthy ranchers and small industrialists.

Conflicts between political groups, guerrillas and paramilitaries were exacerbated by the rise of Colombia as the world’s largest producer of coca leaves.

A peace accord between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government was signed in 2016. The accord ended a 52-year armed conflict and brought an initial decline in violence.

In June 2017, the United Nations political mission for Colombia verified that the FARC guerrillas that accepted the peace agreement had handed over their weapons to the mission. The demobilized guerrilla group later announced it was forming a political party. But a minority of dissident guerrilla fighters rejected the terms of the peace agreement, refused to disarm, and continue to commit abuses. Other FARC fighters disarmed initially but joined or created new groups, partly in reaction to inadequate reintegration programs and attacks against former fighters. As of August 2020, more than 300 former FARC fighters had been killed. 

Civilians in various parts of the country have suffered abuses at the hands of National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, FARC dissidents, and paramilitary successor groups. Human rights defenders, journalists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, and other community activists face death threats and violence. The government has taken insufficient measures to protect them. 

Conflict-related violence has displaced more than 8.2 million Colombians since 1985; over 75,000 people were displaced only in 2019. Land restitution under the 2011 Victims’ Law continues to make slow progress. The law was enacted to restore millions of hectares left behind by or stolen from internally displaced Colombians during the conflict. As of August 2021, the courts had issued rulings in only 11,300 out of over 125,000 claims filed. The COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions hampered the work of humanitarian agencies helping displaced people in Colombia [4], [5].