Where Foreigners Live in Paraguay

Argentina and Brazil together account for 74.7% of all foreign-born residents in Paraguay, but their geographic patterns are very different:

Argentines concentrate in the south and central departments — Central (23,179), Itapúa (9,282), Asunción (6,996), and the southern corridor along the Argentina border. This reflects proximity, cross-border movement, and historical economic ties.

Brazilians dominate the eastern border departments — Alto Paraná (24,670), Canindeyú (6,642), and Amambay (5,565). This reflects the long Brazil-Paraguay border, Brazilian agribusiness presence (soy, cattle), and the Ciudad del Este commercial hub.

The Location Quotient view on the map makes this pattern clear: Brazilians are 2.0–2.6× more concentrated in eastern border departments than their national average share (Germany in Guairá reaches 8×), while Argentines show high concentration in southern departments near the Argentina border.

The German-speaking population in Boquerón (263) and Guairá (576) is primarily made up of Russian Mennonites — descendants of families who migrated from Russian Empire territories (modern-day Ukraine) in the 1920s–1930s via Canada and Germany, settling in the Paraguayan Chaco. This is distinct from recent German immigrants who tend to live in urban areas.

Despite Boquerón and Alto Paraguay having some of the smallest total populations among Paraguayan departments, their foreign-born percentages rank high (2.5% and 1.6% respectively) because the Mennonite communities form a large share of the local population in a sparsely populated area.

German/Mennonite concentration in the Chaco is another example where the Location Quotient view reveals patterns invisible in raw counts: the Mennonite community's share of Boquerón's population is many times the national average German share.

The foreign settlement patterns make more sense when viewed alongside Paraguay's internal migration: Asunción loses significant population overall (net -24,348 in the latest internal migration data), but has a higher foreign-born share (4.4%) than the national average (2.7%).

Meanwhile, Central department — the suburbs around Asunción — gains the most internal migrants (+40,456) and has a foreign-born share of 2.1%, slightly below the national average. This suggests that while Paraguayans are moving from Asunción to the suburbs, the city's foreign-born residents remain in the capital.

The contrast is striking: Asunción is losing overall population but is more cosmopolitan than the growing suburban ring. This has implications for where relocation seekers might find established international communities.

This page is based on INE CNPV 2022 census data, specifically Cuadro 4 (Table 4) from "Una mirada a los movimientos migratorios en el Paraguay," published by INE in 2024.

Country of birth, not nationality: The census variable is country of birth. Some people born outside Paraguay are Paraguayan citizens by naturalization or descent. The data does not distinguish citizens from non-citizens. This caveat appears on the page itself, not only here in the methodology.

Foreign-born total: The sum of departments (156,603) plus an estimated 201 from the "no informado departamento" category equals 156,804, matching the INE national total. A separate 6,462 people did not report their country of birth and are included in the foreign-born total. A further 291,180 did not report place of birth at all and are excluded.

Small cell suppression: Cells with fewer than 10 residents are not shown in the public table. Actual counts for small nationalities in small departments may be suppressed.

Historical data: INE CNPV 2012 published emigrant data (Cuadro 15 — international emigrants 2007–2011) but did not publish an equivalent "foreign-born residents by department" table. The current 5-point series (1972–2022) represents the complete available historical dataset from INE publications. The next census should be in 2032.