Reassessing the Guayana Project: Migration to and from Bolívar State, Venezuela, 1950-1990

Abstract

The concentration of population in the capital cities of developing countries by the mid twentieth century prompted several of these countries to embark on elaborate population redistribution projects. Ciudad Guayana, a city in Southeastern Venezuela, was one such project designed to produce a more equitable distribution of population and economic resources throughout the country. This paper examines changes in the origin and destination states of in and outmigrants to and from Bolívar State (the location of Ciudad Guayana) and the other 22 states of Venezuela from before the implementation of the Guayana Project in 1950 to 1990, the latest census, to determine the effect that the new city had on the attraction of inmigrants from other states as well as the retention of possible outmigrants from Bolívar State.