Land area: 106,888 sq mi (276,840 sq km);

Total area: 109, 483 sq mi (283,560 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 15,654,411

Life expectancy: 76.36

Capital: Quito

Monetary unit: U.S. dollar

The coastal section and the high Andean basins situated in modern day Ecuador, were populated by Indian tribes when the first Europeans reached the area's Pacific coast in 1526. The Incan Empire extended over the highland area to an area near to Quito. The first Spanish settlement in Ecuador was established in 1534 at Quito on the site of an important Incan town of the same name. Another settlement was established four years later near the river Guayas in Guayaquil. Ecuador was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1740, when it was transferred to the Viceroyalty of New Granada (together with Colombia and Venezuela).

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