Although historically El Salvador has been home to a culturally various mix of peoples including blacks, Indians, Hispanics, and North Europeans, by the 1980s the population of the nation was essentially homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and basic cultural identity. Virtually all Salvadorans spoke Spanish, the official language, as their mother tongue, and the large majority could be characterized as mestizos ,meaning persons of mixed biological ancestry who follow a wide mixture of indigenous and Hispanic customs and habits that over the centuries have come to constitute Spanish-American cultural patterns. In the late 1980s, the ethnic composition of the population was around as 89 % mestizo,10 % Indian, and 1 % white.

In contrast to most other Central American countries, El Salvador no longer possessed an ethnically or linguistically distinct Indian population, although persons of Indian racial or cultural heritage still lived in the western departments of the nation. During the twentieth century, this population was rapidly assimilated into the dominant Hispanic culture. Similarly, there was no ethnically or culturally distinct black population.

Before the Spanish arrived in Salvadoran territory in the 16th century, it was occupied by a complex of Indian tribes. Of these the Pocomam, Chortí, and Lenca, all related to the Maya, were the more ancient, but the Pipil, whose civilization resembled that of the Aztecs in Mexico, were predominant. The Pipil name for their territory as well as for their capital was Cuscatlán, meaning “Land of the Jewel”; the name is still sometimes applied to El Salvador today. Archaeological ruins dating from Indian times are to be seen at Tazumal, Pampe, El Trapito, and San Andrés. Of several large towns founded by the Indians, Sonsonate and Ahuachapán still exist.