Ecuador

Ecuador is a country in South America.

Its name means equator. The equator is an imaginary line around the middle of the Earth. The capital city is called Quito.

Ecuador is in northwestern South America, beside the Pacific Ocean. Its name comes from the equator, the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth, which runs through the country just north of the capital, Quito.

Ecuador is small, but it is one of the most varied countries in the world. The mainland has three regions: the coast (Costa), the high Andes mountains (Sierra) and the Amazon rainforest in the east (Oriente). Out in the Pacific Ocean lie the Galápagos Islands. About 18 million people lived in Ecuador in 2025.

Ecuador straddles part of the Andes and part of the Amazon basin and lies on the equator, from which its name derives. Britannica calls it one of the most environmentally diverse countries in the world, with a notable place in the history of science: the first expedition to measure Earth's circumference, led by Charles-Marie de La Condamine, was based there, and research by Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin helped found modern geography, ecology and evolutionary biology.

The mainland divides into the Costa, the Sierra and the Oriente, and the Galápagos form a fourth region. The World Bank put the population at 18,289,896 in 2025; the 2022 census counted 16,938,986. Ecuador is unusual in Latin America for having two major centers, the highland capital, Quito, and the port of Guayaquil.

Quito is the capital city. It is high up in the mountains.

Guayaquil is a big city by a river near the sea. Cuenca is an old town with straight streets.

Quito, the capital, sits in an Andean valley 2,850 meters above sea level. It was founded in the 1500s on the ruins of an Inca city, and its old center, with churches and monasteries full of carved and painted art, became a World Heritage Site in 1978. Just outside the city, a monument marks the equator.

Guayaquil, on the Guayas River near the Pacific, is Ecuador's great port and its biggest city. In the southern highlands, Cuenca, founded in 1557, still follows its neat grid of straight streets from Spanish times.

UNESCO describes Quito, at 2,850 m, as founded in the 16th century on the ruins of an Inca city and as having, despite a 1917 earthquake, the best-preserved, least altered historic center in Latin America; the monasteries of San Francisco and Santo Domingo and the Jesuit church of La Compañía show the Baroque school of Quito, a fusion of Spanish, Italian, Moorish, Flemish and Indigenous art. It was inscribed in 1978.

Guayaquil, on the Guayas River, is the commercial counterweight to the capital. Cuenca (inscribed 1999), founded in 1557 under planning rules issued 30 years earlier by Charles V, keeps its orthogonal plan; in the 19th century it prospered exporting quinine and straw hats. Those hats, woven from the leaves of a palm (Carludovica palmata), became known as Panama hats because they were shipped to Panama in the mid-18th century and worn by Panama Canal work crews.

Ecuador has many tall volcanoes.

The tops of the highest ones are covered in snow. In the east there is a hot, rainy forest. Far out at sea are the Galápagos Islands.

Two high chains of the Andes run through Ecuador, and many of their peaks are volcanoes. Cotopaxi, 5,897 meters tall, is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Chimborazo, about 6,263 meters, is the highest. Because Earth bulges at the equator, Chimborazo's top is the point on Earth's surface farthest from Earth's center.

East of the Andes, the land drops to the Amazon rainforest, where rain falls all year. The Galápagos are 19 volcanic islands about 1,000 kilometers out in the Pacific. Ecuador sits on the Ring of Fire, so earthquakes happen here too.

The Sierra comprises two Andean ranges joined by cross ranges that enclose basins called hoyas. Many peaks are volcanic or snow-covered: Cayambe (5,790 m), Antisana (5,704 m), Cotopaxi (5,897 m), one of the world's highest active volcanoes, and Chimborazo. Heights for Chimborazo vary (6,263 m in the 2016 survey used by Wikidata, 6,268 m for NOAA, 6,310 m in Britannica), but NOAA explains that, lying one degree south of the equator where Earth bulges most, its summit is more than 2,072 m farther from Earth's center than Everest's. Because Ecuador lies on the Ring of Fire, it has had several significant earthquakes.

Most of the country is humid. The northern coast and the Oriente receive about 3,000 to 6,000 mm of rain a year, while the Santa Elena Peninsula drops to about 100 mm at Salinas. Temperatures fall about 5 to 6 °C for every 1,000 m of height, and peaks above 5,000 m are snowcapped. The Galápagos, 19 islands at the meeting of three ocean currents, are still shaped by seismic and volcanic activity; Isabela's Mount Azul (1,689 m) is their highest point.

Giant tortoises live on the Galápagos Islands.

So do iguanas and birds with bright blue feet. Jaguars and monkeys live in the rainforest. Condors fly over the mountains.

About 1,500 kinds of birds have been seen in Ecuador, including Andean condors, many hummingbirds, blue-footed boobies and parrots. The rainforest is home to many kinds of monkeys, jaguars, ocelots, tapirs and bats, and the rivers have fish much like those of the Amazon.

The Galápagos Islands are famous for unusual animals, such as land iguanas, giant tortoises and many kinds of finches. Charles Darwin visited them in 1835, and what he saw helped him develop his theory of evolution by natural selection.

Ecuador's birdlife and fish life are notably rich: Britannica counts some 1,500 bird species, including condors, many hummingbirds, blue-footed boobies and parrots, and bird-watching has become a significant source of tourist income. North American birds such as the barn swallow and the scarlet tanager winter there. Rainforest mammals include many monkeys, jaguars, ocelots, otters, coatis, kinkajous, tapirs, deer and peccaries; all major reptile groups are represented.

UNESCO describes the Galápagos as a living museum and showcase of evolution. Seismic and volcanic activity and extreme isolation produced unusual animals, including the land iguana, the giant tortoise and many types of finch, which inspired Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection after his visit in 1835. In the Andes, Sangay National Park (1983) shelters the mountain tapir and the Andean condor in ecosystems ranging from rainforest to glaciers.

About 18 million people live in Ecuador.

Most people speak Spanish. Some speak Quichua or Shuar. Families eat corn, potatoes, rice and fried plantains.

Most people in Ecuador speak Spanish, and most describe themselves as mestizo, of mixed Indigenous and European descent. About one million people speak Indigenous languages, mostly Quichua in the highlands; Quichua and Shuar are official languages too. Afro-Ecuadorian communities live mainly in Esmeraldas on the northwest coast and in the Chota valley.

Food changes with the region. Highland soups mix corn, potatoes, quinoa, beans and squash, while the coast has seviche, fried plantains and rice dishes. At Easter, many families eat fanesca, a soup made with many grains and beans.

Most Ecuadorians identify as mestizo and with their region of birth. Britannica estimates about one million Indigenous-language speakers, most in the Sierra speaking Quichua, a form of Quechua, around Otavalo and Cayambe and through the central highlands; in the southeastern lowlands live the Shuar and Achuar, and the Huaorani, Cofán, Siona-Secoya, Chachi and Tsáchila are among smaller groups. Spanish is official, with Quechua and Shuar as official intercultural languages. Afro-Ecuadorians live mainly in Esmeraldas and the Chota River valley.

Families and local festivals matter: Quito's founding week in early December, Guayaquil's October 9 independence day and the Yamor harvest festival in Otavalo. Fanesca, an Easter soup of grains, beans, squash and fish that joins highland and lowland ingredients, is nearly a national dish. Ecuador became known for exporting cacao, bananas and flowers, and it is a major exporter of petroleum.