Cuenca’s population of foreign residents is growing again, an immigration researcher says

By Liam Higgins

An immigration researcher says Cuenca’s population of North American and European expats is growing again. “The numbers were steady for several years despite the bad news about crime on the coast, but they began to increase in late 2024 and this continued in 2025,” says Joaquin Vivanco, who provides immigration data to several government and non-governmental agencies.

Cuenca’s expat population is growing again, says an immigration researcher.

“In recent months, there have been a number of positive print and internet articles about Cuenca, pointing out its low crime rate and its large population of foreigners,” Vivanco says. “This has countered much of the bad news about drug trafficking violence that has been so widely reported. The news about the city’s established expat community has also been an attraction.”

Vivanco estimates that there are 9,000 foreign residents of North American and European origin in the Cuenca, which is below the city’s Foreign Relations office estimate of 12,000.

According to Vivanco, there was sizeable exodus of foreigners during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I estimate there was a drop of about 10% during the pandemic but those loses were recovered in 2022 and 2023. “Following that rebound, the size of the expatriate community remained steady until the recent growth began,” he says.

Vivanco, whose focus is Latin American immigration, began tracking North American immigration to Cuenca in 2012, shortly after Cuenca was recommended as a top expat destination by a number of news and live-overseas publications and websites. “In a five-year period, beginning in 2010, the number of foreigners, mostly U.S. and Canadian citizens, grew from a few hundred to about 6,000,” he says. “It was phenomenal growth, and it received a lot of attention internationally.”

He adds: “The growth continued after that, reaching 8,000 or 9,000 following the pandemic recovery.”

According to Vivanco, who is an adjunct professor at universities in Quito and Santiago, Chile, the demographic profile of Cuenca expats has changed dramatically over the last decade and a half. “The first wave was mostly elderly North Americans, most of them retired. More recently, the newcomers are younger and more European,” he says. “There are also more Asians moving here, as well as more families.”

Separating the North American and European immigrants from those from Latin American countries has become more difficult in recent years, Vivanco says. “There are 15,000 to 20,000 Venezuelans in Cuenca and 5,000 Colombians, not to mention communities of Cubans, Argentinians and Peruvians, so it can be hard to make good estimates.”

Adding to the confusion, he says, is the fact that there are 4,000 to 5,000 Cuencanos who hold U.S. citizenship. “When you are estimating the number of U.S. citizens in the city, do you count the Ecuadorians with dual citizenship?” he asks. Vivanco says he does not include those Ecuadorians in his estimates of expats.

It’s obvious why Cuenca is popular with foreigners, Vivanco says. “It has cultural and infrastructure attributes and a level of sophistication that make it a good place to live. It stands out among South American cities of comparable size. My wife and I have apartments in both Santiago and Cuenca but in the last two years we are spending more time in Cuenca. She is a concert violinist and has performed with the Cuenca orchestra and I have research contracts with groups in Colombia and Peru.”

Despite high crime rates, Vivanco says relatively few expats living on the coast have moved — less than 5%, he estimates. “Foreigners in places like Manta and Salinas tell me that the violence is concentrated in certain neighborhoods that they avoid,” he says. “They say that although they take more precautions than before, like not staying out late at night, their daily routines have not significantly changed.”