# Where Foreigners Live in Paraguay — Methodology

## Data Source

INE CNPV 2022 — Cuadro 4 (Table 4)
"Una mirada a los movimientos migratorios en el Paraguay"
Published by Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), Paraguay, 2024
URL: https://www.ine.gov.py/Publicaciones/Biblioteca/documento/279/Migracion_Censo_2022.pdf

## Key Definitions

- **Foreign-born residents**: People whose place of birth is outside Paraguay, as recorded on the 2022 census questionnaire.
- **Country of birth, not nationality**: The census records country of birth, not citizenship or nationality. Some people born abroad are Paraguayan citizens. The data does not distinguish citizens from non-citizens.
- **Reporting period**: Census night 2022 (the specific date of the national census enumeration).

## Data Cleaning

- Department-level data extracted from Cuadro 4 (foreign-born residents by department of residence and country of birth).
- National totals verified: sum of 18 departments (156,603) plus approximately 201 from the "no informado departamento" category = 156,804 (matches INE published total).
- A separate 6,462 people did not report their country of birth ("País no informado") — included in the foreign-born total.
- 291,180 people did not report their place of birth at all — excluded from the foreign-born total.
- INE suppresses cells with fewer than 10 residents in the published census tables. Our department-level data follows this same suppression — values below 10 are omitted from the dataset.

## Country Name Normalization

- Official country names from INE source normalized to English-language names for searchability and consistency.
- Example: "Estados Unidos" → "United States", "Corea del Sur" → "South Korea".

## Geographic Notes

- Department boundaries from INE Cartografía Digital 2012 (per-department GeoJSON). Note: Concepción, Amambay, and Canindeyú use approximate polygons — INE Cartografía 2012 RAR v5 archives could not be extracted.
- Asunción is treated as a separate department equivalent (municipio/district) despite being enclaved within Central department.
- The Chaco region (Boquerón, Presidente Hayes, Alto Paraguay) is distinguished from the Oriental region (all other departments).

## Department-Level Nationality Data (byNationality)

The byNationality field tracks 13 specific nationalities plus "Rest of World" (\_\_): Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, Venezuela, Germany, United States, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, South Korea, Japan, Colombia, and Rest of World.

**Gap disclosure**: Department totals (totalForeign) equal the sum of byNationality values **minus suppressed cells**. INE's suppression policy hides cells with fewer than 10 residents, meaning small nationalities in small departments may not appear in byNationality even though they contribute to totalForeign. The gap between totalForeign and sum(byNationality) varies by department:

| Department | Gap (count) | Gap (%) |
|------------|-------------|---------|
| Asunción | 504 | 2.6% |
| Alto Paraná | 1,281 | 3.5% |
| Central | 1,155 | 3.0% |
| Itapúa | 534 | 3.6% |
| Ñeembucú | 107 | 5.1% |
| Caaguazú | 351 | 5.1% |
| Guairá | 177 | 5.1% |
| Cordillera | 221 | 5.8% |
| Canindeyú | 552 | 6.8% |
| Amambay | 400 | 6.1% |
| Misiones | 130 | 6.5% |
| Caazapá | 190 | 6.3% |
| Boquerón | 134 | 8.0% |
| San Pedro | 383 | 10.5% |
| Presidente Hayes | 144 | 11.2% |
| Concepción | 233 | 12.6% |
| Paraguarí | 108 | 4.0% |
| Alto Paraguay | 57 | 20.9% |

These gaps are explained by (a) suppressed cells (< 10 residents per INE policy) and (b) nationalities not tracked in the 14-column byNationality breakdown. The LQ calculation for major nationalities (AR, BR, DE, etc.) is unaffected — those counts are above suppression threshold. The "Others" column in the table (totalForeign minus AR minus BR) absorbs both real Others and these extraction gaps.

## Location Quotient (LQ)

LQ = (nationality % in department) / (nationality % nationally)

- LQ = 1.0 means the geographic unit has the same concentration as the national average
- LQ > 1.0 means higher-than-average concentration
- LQ < 1.0 means lower-than-average concentration
- LQ values are capped at 10× for visualization stability
- LQ is undefined for nationalities with fewer than 10 residents nationally — these are shown as 0 on the LQ map

## Historical Data

- Historical census years: 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002, 2022.
- **2012 data note**: INE CNPV 2012 published emigrant data (Cuadro 15 — international emigrants by department, 2007–2011) but did not publish an equivalent Cuadro 4 "foreign-born residents by department" table. A 6-point historical series would be more defensible, but the 2012 foreign-born data is not available from INE's published microdata. The current 5-point series (1972–2022) is the complete available dataset from INE publications.
- Census years 1972–2002 sourced from INE historical publications.
- "Next census expected 2032" per standard INE decennial cycle.

## Internal Migration Data

- Sourced from INE Cuadro 3 (internal net migration by department).
- Shows inter-departmental movement patterns as of the 2022 census.
- Asunción losing population overall (-24,348) but with higher foreign-born share (4.4%) vs Central's growth (+40,456) with lower foreign share (2.1%).

## Limitations

1. Census data is 4 years old as of publication (2022 census published 2024, page built 2026).
2. Country of birth ≠ nationality — some foreign-born are Paraguayan citizens.
3. Department-level nationality breakdowns are suppressed for small cells (< 10 residents).
4. Historical data gap: INE CNPV 2012 did not publish equivalent foreign-born migration data (only emigrant data). The 5-point series (1972–2022) is complete from INE publications.
5. Annual intercensal estimates from INE are available but not yet incorporated.

## Version

- Version: 1.0
- Published: April 2026
- Last updated: April 2026