What Is the Population of the Amazon Rainforest?
Although there is no properly quantified population count for the Amazon rainforest area, there are around 20 million indigenous people living in the eight countries that make up the Amazon region; roughly two thirds of these people live in Peru. Most of the people living in the Amazon Basin live in the cities that surround the rainforest, including Belem, Brazil, with a population of 1.9 million and Manaus, Brazil, with a population of around 1.5 million.
Nearly all of the Amazon rainforest has been touched by the modern world even though there are some groups still living in the rainforest that are classified as “uncontacted tribes.” These tribes are found interspersed throughout the area. For example, there are a few thousand people estimated to live in 77 uncontacted groups in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
In Bolivia, there are six to 10 groups with a population estimated at around 500, and less than 1,000 people live in the three to five uncontacted groups in Colombia. These tribes live in voluntary isolation, but they don’t stick to fully traditional ways of life. For example, they wear western clothing, use metal pans and utensils and make trips to the city to buy food and other needed items.
