Huila department had a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants in 2020, of which 679,667 (60.54%) live in urban areas and 442,955 (39.46%) in the rest of the
Huilense territory. This amounts to 2.5% of the total Colombian population. The majority of it is settled in the
Magdalena valley, the main urban centers being
Neiva and
Garzón, due to the possibilities offered by commercial-type agricultural economy, oil production, access to basic public services and roads connected to the central road axis along the
Magdalena. The rest of the population is located on the coffee belt, standing out
Pitalito and
La Plata; the North Subregion is undergoing a decrease in its rural population, mainly attributable to alterations of agricultural and oil activities on the landscape. The average population density in the department is 59.88 inhabitants / km2, with the highest densities in
Neiva (223.72),
Pitalito (200.1) and
Garzón (162.45), and with the lowest in the municipalities of
Colombia and
Villavieja (7.83 and 10.91 respectively).
Ethnography According to
DANE, the racial composition of Huila is as follows: 98.43% recognize themselves as
Whites and
Mestizos, while only 1.57% as an ethnic population (
Amerindians and
Afro/
Mulattos). This makes it one of departments with the highest percentage of non-ethnic affiliated population in the country. ==Geography==