 According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Coelemu spans an area of and has 16,082 inhabitants (8,086 men and 7,996 women).Of these, 9,845 (61.2%) lived in urban areas and 6,237 (38.8%) in rural areas.Between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, the population grew by 867% (14,419 persons).