Peru has around 33 million people. About 60% identify as mestizo — mixed indigenous and European ancestry — while around 22% identify as Quechua and 2.4% as Aymara. Smaller communities of African, Japanese, and Chinese descent have shaped the country's culture, particularly its food, out of all proportion to their numbers.
Spanish is the first language for most Peruvians (around 83%), but Quechua is spoken as a first language by nearly 14% of the population, mostly in the Andes. Aymara speakers are concentrated around Puno and Lake Titicaca. Both are recognized as official languages alongside Spanish.
The country is majority Roman Catholic, though in practice Andean spirituality and Catholic practice have blended deeply. Festivals in the highlands typically honour both a Christian saint and an older agricultural or astronomical cycle; the line between the two is often invisible.
Peru is a highly unequal society. Lima concentrates wealth, infrastructure, and services in a way that leaves much of the interior, particularly indigenous Andean and Amazonian communities, underserved. This tension is a recurring theme in Peruvian politics and society.
Mario Vargas Llosa — awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010 — is Peru's most internationally recognized writer. His novels, including Conversation in the Cathedral and The Green House, are among the most searching portrayals of Peruvian society in any language.