Demographics of Brazil


The population of Brazil is very diverse, comprising many races and ethnic groups. In general, Brazilians trace their origins from three sources: Europeans, Amerindians and Africans. Historically, Brazil has experienced large degrees of ethnic and racial admixture, assimilation of cultures and syncretism. The Brazilian population is said to be one of the most mixed in the world.
Brazil has conducted a periodical population census since 1872. Since 1940, this census has been carried out. Scanned versions of the forms for each census distributed in Brazil since 1960 are available on-line from IPUMS International. With a total population of 211,531,000, Brazil is the sixth most populated country in the world.

Population

According to the 2008 PNAD, conducted by the IBGE, the Brazilian Statistics bureau, there were about 189,953,000 inhabitants in 2008. As of the latest census, the Brazilian government estimates its population at 192.76 million.
The population of Brazil is estimated based on various sources from 1550 to 1850. The first official census took place in 1873. From that year, every 8 years the population is counted. The Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica has postponed the next census until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brazil is the sixth most populated country in the world.
Population distribution in Brazil is very uneven. The majority of Brazilians live within 300 kilometers of the coast, while the interior in the Amazon Basin is almost empty. Therefore, the densely populated areas are on the coast and the sparsely populated areas are in the interior. This historical pattern is little changed by recent movements into the interior.

UN estimates

According to the population was in, compared to only 53,975,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 13 in 2015 was 23.0%, 69.2% was between 15 and 61 years of age, while 7.8% was 65 years or older.
Total population Population aged less than 15 Population aged 15–64 Population aged 65+
195053 97541.655.53.0
195562 65642.055.03.0
196072 49443.153.73.1
196584 13043.653.03.4
197095 98242.354.23.5
1975108 43140.256.03.8
1980122 20038.457.64.0
1985136 83636.959.04.1
1990150 39335.460.14.5
1995162 75532.462.65.0
2000175 78629.764.75.6
2005188 47927.566.26.3
2010198 61424.968.46.7
2015207 84822.569.58.0
2020213 86320.769.89.5

Vital statistics

Total Fertility Rate from 1940 to 1990

The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
Years19401941194219431944194519461947194819491950
Total Fertility Rate in Brazil5.95.925.955.986.016.046.076.096.126.156.14

Years1961196219631964196519661967196819691970
Total Fertility Rate in Brazil6.0565.945.855.735.65.455.35.155.01

Years1981198219831984198519861987198819891990
Total Fertility Rate in Brazil3.973.863.743.623.493.363.233.113.012.91

Years2001200220032004200520062007200820092010
Total Fertility Rate in Brazil2.232.162.12.031.981.931.881.851.821.8

Registration of vital events in Brazil has considerably improved during the past decades but is still not considered complete, especially in the northern part of the country. The Population Division of the United Nations prepared the following estimates and forecasts.

Births and deaths

YearPopulationLive birthsDeathsNatural increaseCrude birth rateCrude death rateRate of natural increaseTFR
19993,256,433938,6582,317,775
20003,206,761946,6862,260,075
20013,115,474961,4922,153,982
20023,059,402982,8072,076,595
20033,426,7271,005,8822,420,845
20043,329,1201,025,9812,303,139
20053,329,4311,010,0522,319,379
20063,172,0001,037,5042,134,496
20073,080,2661,050,4082,029,858
20083,107,9271,074,8892,033,038
20093,045,6961,098,3841,947,3121.906
2010192,755,7992,985,4061,132,7011,852,70514.35.88.51.869
20113,044,5941,163,7401,880,8541.833
20123,030,3641,172,4431,857,9211.801
20132,989,9811,195,9131,794,0681.770
20143,041,5681,208,5871,832,9811.742
20153,058,7831,244,5581,814,22514.46.08.41.716
2016206,081,4322,903,9331,288,8561,615,07713.56.27.31.692
2017207,660,9292,962,8151,292,2971,670,51814.36.28.1
2018208,494,9002,983,5671,298,5791,684,98814.36.28.1
20191,291,3526.1

Regional and racial differences

In some states in the North and Northeast, the fertility rate was higher than the national average in 2015. The highest rate was in Acre, with 2.35 children per woman. Other regions with high fertility include Amapá, with 2.28 children per woman, Amazonas, 2.25 in Roraima, 2.22, in Maranhão, 2.17, and Pará, 2.13.
On the other hand, São Paulo is the state with the lowest rate, 1.38 children per woman. Other states with low fertility include Santa Catarina, with 1.45, Rio Grande do Sul, 1.50, in Rio de Janeiro, 1.55 in Paraná and Minas Gerais, 1.59.
Regarding race of mothers, between 2001 and 2015, the fertility rate of all racial groups fell below replacement rate. Black fertility fell from 2.75 to 1.88, Pardo/Mixed fertility fell from 2.65 to 1.96 and white fertility fell from 2.10 to 1.69. There was no information regarding Asian fertility rates. Indigenous fertility was calculated at 3.87 children per women in 2010.

Childlessness and education

The color or race of the woman and the level of education has also shown to influence the fact of not having children. In 2013, among European women aged 15 to 49 years, 41.5% had no children, while among African women, the percentage was 35.8%.
The proportional difference is even greater among European women compared to African 25–29 years. While the proportion among European women childless was 48.1% among African women was 33.8%.
Regarding education, among women 15–49 years of age with more than eight years of schooling, 44.2% had no children in 2013, while among those with up to seven years of study this figure was 21.6%.
Schooling among women 25–29 years has shown an even greater disparity. Among the less educated, 16.3% had no children, while among the more educated 54.5% had no children. The proportion of women aged 45 to 49 without children was 8.2% in 2013 among those with less education and 15.1% among those with more years of schooling.

Total fertility rate

Brazil 100%European 47.73%African 7.61%Asian 1.09%Pardo 43.13%Native Indians 0.43%
Population 0–1445,932,29420,460,4822,698,639420,95222,055,573295,862
Percent group 0–14 in race24.08%22.47%18.59%20.02%26.81%36.17%
Population 0–14 compared to racial groups100%44.54%5.88%0.92%48.02%0.64%
Population 15–49105,816,28549,381,2068,693,3501,178,39146,156,227402,079
Proportions 0–14 to 15–490,434070,414340,310430,357230,477850,73583

Age groupBrazil 100% European 47.73% Africans 7.61% Asian 1.09% Pardo 43.13% Native Indians 0.43% Unspecified 0.0034%
Population190,755,79991,051,64614,517,9612,084,28882,277,333817,9636,608
0–413,796,158 6,701,186 655,958 119,956 6,217,638 101,195 225
5–914,969,375 6,562,558 887,209 139,543 7,279,983 99,841 241
10–1417,166,761 7,196,738 1,155,472 161,453 8,557,952 94,826 320
15–1916,990,872 7,311,734 1,264,183 177,008 8,155,126 82,500 321
20–2417,245,192 7,774,488 1,381,677 200,060 7,814,487 73,387 1 093
25–2917,104,414 7,936,115 1,443,820 202,733 7,455,402 65,104 1 240
30–3415,744,512 7,344,600 1,360,298 182,150 6,800,175 56,326 963
35–3913,888,579 6,596,137 1,175,333 152,546 5,915,773 48,167 623
40–4413,009,364 6,365,363 1,095,301 139,230 5,368,059 40,950 461
45–4911,833,352 6,052,769 972,738 124,664 4,647,205 35,645 331
50–5410,140,402 5,286,559 848,098 106,539 3,869,792 29,156 258
55–598,276,221 4,404,057 675,404 95,149 3,076,630 24,800 181
60–6911,349,930 6,158,001 906,487 152,099 4,097,068 36,062 213
70+9,240,667 5,361,341 695,983 131,158 3,022,043 30,004 138

Demographic statistics

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review.
Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
;Age structure:
in 2017
;Median age:
;Total fertility rate:
;Population:
;Population growth rate:
Birth rate:
13.9 births/1,000 population Country comparison to the world: 135th
;Death rate:
;Net migration rate:
;Life expectancy at birth:
;Languages:
;Religions:
;Dependency ratios:

Largest urban agglomerations

Cities in Brazil, except for the state of São Paulo, are usually not arranged in a single network, but rather on various export paths to seaside ports. The most important cities are on the coast or close to it. State capitals are also each the largest city in its state, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina. There are also non-capital metropolitan areas in São Paulo state, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina.
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are far larger than any other Brazilian city. São Paulo's influence in most economic aspects can be noted in a national scale; other Brazilian metropolises are second tier, even though Rio de Janeiro still host various large corporations' headquarters, besides being Brazil's cultural center with respect to soap operas and film production. Brasília, the capital of Brazil, is the 3rd biggest city.

Urban agglomerations

Municipalities

Migrations

Immigration

Immigration has been a very important demographic factor in the formation, structure and history of the population in Brazil, influencing culture, economy, education, racial issues, etc. Brazil has received the third largest number of immigrants in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States and Argentina.
Brazil's structure, legislation and settlement policies for arriving immigrants were much less organized than in Canada and the United States at the time. Nevertheless, an Immigrant's Hostel was built in 1886 in São Paulo, and quick admittance and recording routines for the throngs of immigrants arriving by ship at the seaports of Vitória, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Paranaguá, Florianópolis and Porto Alegre were established. The São Paulo State alone processed more than 2.5 million immigrants in its almost 100 years of continuous operation. People of more than 70 different nationalities were recorded.
Following the trend of several other countries in the Americas, which encouraged immigration from many countries, Brazil quickly became a melting pot of races and nationalities, but being peculiar in the sense of having the highest degree of intermarriage in the world. Immigrants found a strong social and cultural tolerance toward inter-racial marriage, including large numbers of Mulattoes, Caboclos and mixed European, African and Indian people, though it was not accompanied by an entire lack of racism. Correspondingly, the same mentality reflected in low psychological and social barriers regarding intermarriage between Europeans, Middle Easterners and Asians of several origins, as well as between people of different religions.

History of immigration

It is that the Americas were settled by three migratory waves from Northern Asia. The Native Brazilians are thought to descend from the first wave of migrants, who arrived in the region around 9000 BC. The main Native Brazilian groups are the Tupi-Guarani, the Jê, the Arawaks and the Caraibas. The Tupi-Guarani nation, originally from the Paraná river basin and also one of the largest of the Native-Paraguayan nations, had spread all along the Brazilian coastline from South to North and came to be known by the Portuguese as "Os Índios da Língua Geral" ; the Jê nation occupied most of the interior of the country from Maranhão to Santa Catarina. The Arawaks and the Caribs, the last ones to get in contact with the Portuguese, lived in the North and Northwest of Brazil.
The European immigration to Brazil started in the 16th century, with the vast majority of them coming from Portugal. In the first two centuries of colonization, 100,000 Portuguese arrived in Brazil. In the 18th century, 600,000 Portuguese arrived. The first region to be settled by the Portuguese was Northeastern Brazil, followed by the Southeast region. The original Amerindian population of Brazil largely died from disease or violence or was assimilated into the Portuguese population. The Mamelucos have always been present in many parts of Brazil.
Another important ethnic group, Africans, first arrived as slaves. Many came from Guinea-Bissau, or from West African countries – by the end of the eighteenth century many had been taken from the Kingdom of Kongo and modern-day Angola, Congo, Mozambique, Benin and Nigeria. By the time of the end of the slave trade in 1850, around six million slaves had been brought to Brazil–50% of all slave traffic between Africa and the Americas. Nowadays, there are still small immigration waves coming from the African continent.
The largest influx of European immigrants to Brazil occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to the Memorial do Imigrante statistics data, Brazil attracted nearly 5 million immigrants between 1870 and 1953. These immigrants were divided in two groups: a part of them was sent to Southern Brazil to work as small farmers. However, the biggest part of the immigrants was sent to Southeast Brazil to work in the coffee plantations. The immigrants sent to Southern Brazil were mainly Germans Italians, Austrians, Poles, Ukrainians, Dutch and Russians. In the South, the immigrants established rural communities that, still today, have a strong cultural connection with their ancestral homelands. In Southeast Brazil, most of the immigrants were Italians, Portuguese, Dutch, Spaniards, Lithuanians, French, Hungarians and Ashkenazi Jews.
Notably, the first half of the 20th century saw a large inflow of Japanese and Arab Christians from Lebanon and Syria. These Christian Levantine immigrants were wrongly called "Turks" by many Brazilians because their original countries were still under Ottoman rule back in the period when their immigration to Brazil began. The number of actual Turks who immigrated to Brazil was in fact very small. Chinese, Taiwanese and Koreans influx became common after the 1950s.

IBGE's 1998 PME

In 1998, the IBGE, within its preparation for the 2000 census, experimentally introduced a question about "origem" in its "Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego", in order to test the viability of introducing that variable in the Census. This research interviewed about 90,000 people in six metropolitan regions.
Here are its results for both the European population and the population in general:
Notice that the total is higher than 100% because of multiple claims of ascendants from different nations in the answers.

Emigration

In the second half of the 1980s, Brazilians from various socioeconomic levels started to emigrate to other countries in search of economic opportunities.
In the 1990s, nearly 1.9 million Brazilians were living outside the country, mainly in the United States, Paraguay and Japan, but also in Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Israel. However, there were no specific policies implemented by the government to encourage or discourage this emigration process.
The 2000 Brazilian Census provides some information about the high number of migrants returning to Brazil. Of those who reported residing in another country less than 10 years before the 2000 census, 66.9 percent were Brazilians. If only the returning migrants are considered, 26.8 percent of Brazilians came from Paraguay, 17 percent came from Japan, and 15.8 percent came from the United States.

Racial composition

The bulk of the Brazilian population descends from three main source populations ; early European settlers, sub-Saharan Africans, and the indigenous peoples in Brazil.
Starting in the late 19th century, Brazil received substantial post-colonial immigration from several other regions, mainly from peoples of what are now the countries of Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, as well as Arab Christians from the Levant, Ukraine, Japan, the People's Republic of China and Korea.
Jews in Brazil are a small but sizable population, and they include mostly Ashkenazi Jews, a smaller proportion of Sephardi Jews, and to a much lesser extent Mizrahi Jews. Overall, the small but sizable Brazilian Jewish community is concentrated especially in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre, and they are accounted for without Brazilian descendants of Portuguese "New Christians", which if included would inflate the Jewish origin population in Brazil considerably. By themselves, Brazilian descendants of Portuguese "New Christians" are estimated to account for a figure anywhere between hundreds of thousands to several million.
The descendants of European immigrants, particularly the Germans, Italians, Austrians, Swiss, Poles, Ukrainians, French, Dutch, Lithuanians, Scandinavians, Russians, Hungarians, Finns and Luxembourgers are mainly concentrated in the southern part of the country, in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and the most populous, São Paulo; these states have a wide majority of citizens of European descent.
São Paulo alone has the largest population in absolute numbers with 30 million Europeans.
In the rest of the country, part of the European-Brazilian population is of colonial Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish and French settler stock, especially in the Northeast. In the mid-southern states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul and in the Federal District, the number of Europeans revolves around 50% of the population, being somewhat equal to the absolute number of Afro-Brazilians, East Asians and mixed race Brazilians, i.e., Caboclos or Mestizo/Castizo, Mulattoes, Eurasians and Gypsies altogether.
In the Northeast, which received large masses of African slaves to work in sugarcane, tobacco and cotton plantations, people of African and mixed-race descent predominate, mostly on the coast, whereas in the semi-arid country land there is a predominance of Europeans and Amerindian-European mixed people. Most of the African or mulatto people in the sertão are descended from freed African slaves or mulattos who fled inland from the coast and worked as cowboys for semi-feudal lords. The city of Salvador da Bahia is considered one of the largest African cities of the world.
In the Northwest, a great part of the population has distinguishable ethnic characteristics that emphasize their Amerindian roots. Other ethnic groups have merged with the Indigenous tribes there. This region is not densely populated, and "caboclos", people of mixed native and European descent, are a small part of the entire Brazilian population.
The Japanese are the largest Asian group in Brazil. In fact, Brazil has the largest population of Japanese ancestry outside Japan, with 1.8 million Japanese Brazilians, most of them living in São Paulo. Some Chinese and Korean also settled Brazil. Most Chinese came from mainland China, but others came from Taiwan and Hong Kong, and also from Portuguese-speaking Macau—these Chinese from Macau could speak and understand Portuguese, and it was not hard for them to adjust to Brazilian life. Those immigrant populations and their descendants still retain some of their original ethnic identity, however they are not closed communities and are rapidly integrating into mainstream Brazilian society: for instance, very few of the third generation can understand their grandparents' languages.

European-Brazilians

According to the 2010 census, there were more than 91 million European-Brazilians, comprising 47.73% of Brazil's population. European-Brazilians are defined as people who are solely or mostly descended from European immigrants, although most Brazilians have some degree of European ancestry. Europeans are found in the entire territory of Brazil, although they are most concentrated in the south and southeastern parts of the country.
A survey conducted in 1998 by the Minas Gerais sociologist Simon Schwartzman interviewed about 34 million Brazilians, of whom nearly 20 million declared themselves white. Asked the ethnic origin of the participants of white race, a plurality pointed only Brazilian origin. More than half, however, managed to point to a foreign origin: 15.72% indicated Italian ancestry, 14.50% Portuguese, 6.42% Spanish, 5.51% German and 12.32% other origins, which include Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian, Dutch, Austrian, Swiss, French, Hungarian, Norwegian, partial distant African, indigenous, British, American Confederate, Jewish
and Christian Levantine Arab.
community with former President of Brazil, in Rio Grande do Sul.
Nearly one million Europeans had arrived in Brazil by 1800; most of them colonists from Portugal. An immigration boom occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, when nearly six million Europeans emigrated to Brazil, most of them Portuguese, Germans Italians and Spaniards.
Many European-Brazilians have some Amerindian and/or African ancestry. It is estimated that 75% of all Brazilians have varying degrees of Portuguese ancestry.
Nowadays, European-Brazilians come from a very diverse background, which includes:
The first Dutch immigrants to South America after its independence waves from their metropoles went to the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo between 1858 and 1862, where they founded the settlement of Holanda, a colony of 500 mainly Reformed folk from West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in the Dutch province of Zeeland.
Dutch and other Low Franconian languages are still spoken in São Paulo, especially Holambra, famous for its tulips and the annual Expoflora event, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and around Ponta Grossa, Castrolanda and Carambeí known as little Holland, in the plains of Paraná, headquarters of several food companies and a dairy farming region.
Today 15% of Brazilians or 31 million citizens are of Italian extraction, the largest number outside of Italy itself, most of them descended from Northern Italians, reason why Talian, or the Venetian dialect, is the third most spoken mother tongue in the nation.
An additional figure of 1.2 million Portuguese arrived between 1951 and 1975 to settle mostly in the Southeast.
Nowadays, Lusitanians constitute the biggest group of foreigners living in the country, with over 690,000 Portuguese nationals currently living in Brazil. The vast majority arrived in the last decade. The first semester of 2011 solely had an increase of 52 thousand Portuguese nationals applying for a permanent residence visa while another large group was granted Brazilian citizenship.
The Pardos can be a mixture of Europeans, Levantine Arabs, Crypto-Jews or Anusim, Africans, Amerindians, Gypsies and Asians. Brazil does not have a category for multiracial people, but a Pardo one, which may include caboclos, mulatos, cafuzos, the multiracial result of their intermixing and assimilated, westernized indigenous people.
The Pardos make up 43.13% or 82.3 million people of Brazil's population. Multiracial Brazilians live in the entire territory of Brazil. Although, according to DNA resources, most Brazilians possess some degree of mixed-race ancestry, less than 45% of the country's population classified themselves as being part of this group due to phenotype.
The caboclo or mestiço population, those whose ancestry is Native and European, revolves around 43 million people or 21% of the population. Genetic studies conducted by the geneticist Sergio D.J. Pena of the Federal University of Minas Gerais have shown that the caboclo population is made of individuals whose DNA ranges from 70% to 90% European with the remaining percentage spanning different Indigenous markers. Similar DNA tests showed that people self-classified as mulatto or European and African mix, span from 62% to 83% European. The pardo category in Brazil also includes 800 thousand gypsies or Roma people, most of them coming from Portugal but also different countries in Eastern Europe and the Baltics. Eurasians can also be classified as pardo. The majority of them consisting of Ainoko or Hafu, individuals of Japanese and European ancestry.
Recent research has suggested that Asians from the early Portuguese Eastern Empire, known as Luso-Asians first came to Brazil during the sixteenth century as seamen known as Lascars, or as servants, slaves and concubines accompanying the governors, merchants and clergy who has served in Portuguese Asia. This first presence of Asians was limited to Northeast Brazil, especially Bahia, but others were brought as cultivators, textile workers and miners to Pará and other parts of the Northeast.

African-Brazilians

African-Brazilians are defined as people who are solely, or mostly, descended from former African slaves, or immigrants. According to the 2010 census, there are 14,517,961 Afro Brazilians, which make up 7.61% of Brazil's population, although a larger number of Brazilians have some degree of African ancestry.

Asian-Brazilians

According to the 2006 census, people of East Asian descent number 1,919,000, or 1.1% of Brazil's population. Estimates say that there are 2.5 to 3.0 million people of Japanese descent in Brazil, who are mostly concentrated in two states: São Paulo and Paraná, but smaller communities are found in the entire territory of the country. Brazil has the largest population of Japanese descent outside Japan.
There are also smaller communities of Korean people and Chinese origin.

Aboriginal-Brazilians

The Amerindians make up 0.4% of Brazil's population, or about 700,000 people. Indigenous peoples are found in the entire territory of Brazil, although the majority of them live in Indian reservations in the North and Centre-Western part of the country.
Over 60 million Brazilians possess at least one Native South American ancestor, according to a mitochondrial DNA study. However, only 0.4% of the population consider themselves to be Natives. Brazilians tend to consider "Native South American" a cultural, not racial category.
When the first Portuguese arrived in Brazil, in 1500, there were between 2.5 and 3.2 million Natives living in the country. In the mid-19th century they were only 100,000 and in the late 20th century close to 300,000.

Genetic studies

Genetic studies have shown the Brazilian population as a whole to have European, African and Native American components.

Autosomal studies

A 2015 autosomal genetic study, which also analysed data of 25 studies of 38 different Brazilian populations concluded that: European ancestry accounts for 62% of the heritage of the population, followed by the African and the Native American. The European contribution is highest in Southern Brazil, the African highest in Northeast Brazil and the Native American is the highest in Northern Brazil.
RegionEuropeanAfricanNative American
North Region51%16%32%
Northeast Region58%27%15%
Central-West Region64%24%12%
Southeast Region67%23%10%
South Region77%12%11%

An autosomal study from 2013, with nearly 1300 samples from all of the Brazilian regions, found a pred. degree of European ancestry combined with African and Native American contributions, in varying degrees. 'Following an increasing North to South gradient, European ancestry was the most prevalent in all urban populations. The populations in the North consisted of a significant proportion of Native American ancestry that was about two times higher than the African contribution. Conversely, in the Northeast, Center-West and Southeast, African ancestry was the second most prevalent. At an intrapopulation level, all urban
populations were highly admixed, and most of the variation in ancestry proportions was observed between individuals within each population rather than among population'.
RegionEuropeanAfricanNative American
North Region51%17%32%
Northeast Region56%28%16%
Central-West Region58%26%16%
Southeast Region61%27%12%
South Region74%15%11%

An autosomal DNA study, with nearly 1000 samples from all over the country, found out a major European contribution, followed by a high African contribution and an important Native American component. "In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South". The 2011 autosomal study samples came from blood donors, and also public health institutions personnel and health students. The study showed that Brazilians from different regions are more homogenous than previously thought by some based on the census alone. "Brazilian homogeneity is, therefore, a lot greater between Brazilian regions than within Brazilian regions".
RegionEuropeanAfricanNative American
Northern Brazil68.80%10.50%18.50%
Northeast of Brazil60.10%29.30%8.90%
Southeast Brazil74.20%17.30%7.30%
Southern Brazil79.50%10.30%9.40%

According to a DNA study from 2010, "a new portrayal of each ethnicity contribution to the DNA of Brazilians, obtained with samples from the five regions of the country, has indicated that, on average, European ancestors are responsible for nearly 80% of the genetic heritage of the population. The variation between the regions is small, with the possible exception of the South, where the European contribution reaches nearly 90%. The results, published by the scientific magazine American Journal of Human Biology by a team of the Catholic University of Brasília, show that, in Brazil, physical indicators such as skin colour, colour of the eyes and colour of the hair have little to do with the genetic ancestry of each person, which has been shown in previous studies. "Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, with a major contribution of European ancestry followed by African and Amerindian contributions. The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bioanthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations". It is important to note that "the samples came from free of charge paternity test takers, thus as the researchers made it explicit: "the paternity tests were free of charge, the population samples involved people of variable socioeconomic strata, although likely to be leaning slightly
towards the ‘‘pardo’’ group".
RegionEuropeanAfricanNative American
North Region71.10%18.20%10.70%
Northeast Region77.40%13.60%8.90%
Central-West Region65.90%18.70%11.80%
Southeast Region79.90%14.10%6.10%
South Region87.70%7.70%5.20%

An autosomal DNA study from 2009 found a similar profile "all the Brazilian samples lie more closely to the European group than to the African populations or to the Mestizos from Mexico".
RegionEuropeanAfricanNative American
North Region60.6%21.3%18.1%
Northeast Region66.7%23.3%10.0%
Central-West Region66.3%21.7%12.0%
Southeast Region60.7%32.0%7.3%
South Region81.5%9.3%9.2%

According to another autosomal DNA study from 2008, by the University of Brasília, European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil, accounting for 65.90% of heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution and the Native American.
São Paulo state, the most populous state in Brazil, with about 40 million people, showed the following composition, according to an autosomal study from 2006: European genes account for 79% of the heritage of the people of São Paulo, 14% are of African origin, and 7% Native American. A more recent study, from 2013, found the following composition in São Paulo state: 61.9% European, 25.5% African and 11.6% Native American.

Races and ethnicities by region

South

The South of Brazil is the region with the largest percentage of Europeans. According to the 2005 census, people of European ancestry account for 79.6% of the population. In colonial times, this region had a very small population.
The region what is now Southern Brazil was originally settled by Amerindian peoples, mostly Guarani and Kaingangs. Only a few settlers from São Paulo were living there. This situation made the region vulnerable to attacks from neighboring countries. This fact forced the King of Portugal to decide to populate the region. For this, settlers from the Portuguese Azores islands were sent to the coast.
To stimulate the immigration to Brazil, the king offered several benefits for the Azorean couples. Between 1748 and 1756, six thousand Portuguese from the Azores moved to the coast of Santa Catarina. They were mainly newly married who were seeking a better life. At that time, the Azores were one of the poorest regions of Portugal. They established themselves mainly in the Santa Catarina Island, nowadays the region of Florianópolis. Later, some couples moved to Rio Grande do Sul, where they established Porto Alegre, the capital. The Azoreans lived on fishing and agriculture, especially flour. They composed over half of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina's population in the late 18th century.
The state of Paraná was settled by colonists from São Paulo due to their proximity.
With the development of cattle in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, African slaves began arriving in large numbers. By 1822, Africans were 50% of Rio Grande do Sul's population. This number decreased to 25% in 1858 and to only 5.2% in 2005. Most of them came from Angola.
After independence from Portugal the Brazilian government started to stimulate the arrival of a new wave of immigrants to settle the South. In 1824 they established São Leopoldo, a German community. Major Schaeffer, a German who was living in Brazil, was sent to Germany in order to bring immigrants. From Rhineland-Palatinate, the Major brought the immigrants and soldiers. Settlers from Germany were brought to work as small farmers, because there were many land holdings without workers.
To attract the immigrants, the Brazilian government had promised large tracts of land, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. The first years were not easy. Many Germans died of tropical disease, while others left the colonies to find better living conditions. The German colony of São Leopoldo was a disaster. Nevertheless, in the following years, a further 4,830 Germans arrived at São Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, with the immigrants establishing the town of Novo Hamburgo.
From São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo, the German immigrants spread into others areas of Rio Grande do Sul, mainly close to sources of rivers. The whole region of Vale dos Sinos was populated by Germans. During the 1830s and part of the 1840s German immigration to Brazil was interrupted due to conflicts in the country. The immigration restarted after 1845 with the creation of new colonies. The most important ones were Blumenau, in 1850, and Joinville in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state; these attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region.
In the next five decades, other 28 thousand Germans were brought to Rio Grande do Sul to work as small farmers in the countryside. By 1914, it is estimated that 50 thousand Germans settled in this state.
Another immigration boom to this region started in 1875. Communities with Italian immigrants were also created in southern Brazil. The first colonies to be populated by Italians were created in the highlands of Rio Grande do Sul. These were Garibaldi and Bento Gonçalves. These immigrants were predominantly from Veneto, in northern Italy. After five years, in 1880, the great numbers of Italian immigrants arriving caused the Brazilian government to create another Italian colony, Caxias do Sul. After initially settling in the government-promoted colonies, many of the Italian immigrants spread themselves into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul seeking further opportunities.
They created many other Italian colonies on their own, mainly in highlands, because the lowlands were already populated by Germans and native gaúchos. The Italian established many vineyards in the region. Nowadays, the wine produced in these areas of Italian colonization in southern Brazil is much appreciated within the country, though little is available for export. In 1875, the first Italian colonies were established in Santa Catarina, which lies immediately to the north of Rio Grande do Sul. The colonies gave rise to towns such as Criciúma, and later also spread further north, to Paraná.
A significant number of Poles have settled in Southern Brazil. The first immigrants arrived in 1869 and until 1959, it is estimated that over 100,000 Poles migrated to Brazil, 95% of whom were peasants. The State of Paraná received the majority of Polish immigrants, who settled mainly in the region of Curitiba, in the towns of Mallet, Cruz Machado, São Matheus do Sul, Irati, and União da Vitória.

Southeast

The Southeastern region of Brazil is the most ethnically diverse part of the country. Europeans make up 55.16% of its population, those of mixed-race 35.69%, and African descent 7.91%. It has the largest percentage of Asian-Brazilians, composing 0.8%, and a small Amerindian community.
Southeast Brazil is home to the oldest Portuguese village in the Americas, São Vicente, São Paulo, established in 1532. The region, since the beginning of its colonization, is a melting pot of Africans, Indians, and Europeans. The Amerindians of the region were enslaved by the Portuguese. The race mixing between the Indian females and their European masters produced the Bandeirante, the colonial inhabitant of São Paulo, who formed expeditions that crossed the interior of Brazil and greatly increased the Portuguese colonial territory. The main language spoken by these people of mixed Indian/Portuguese heritage was Língua geral, a language that mixed Tupi and Portuguese words.
In the late 17th century the Bandeirantes found gold in the area that nowadays is Minas Gerais. A gold rush took place in Brazil and thousands of Portuguese colonists arrived during this period. The confrontation between the Bandeirantes and the Portuguese for obtaining possession of the mines led to the Emboabas' War. The Portuguese won the war. The Amerindian culture declined, giving space to a stronger Portuguese cultural domination. In order to control the wealth, the Portuguese Crown moved the capital of Brazil from Salvador, Bahia to Rio de Janeiro. Thousands of African slaves were brought to work in the gold mines. They were landed in Rio de Janeiro and sent to other regions. By the late 18th century, Rio de Janeiro was an "African city": most of its inhabitants were slaves. No other place in the world had as many slaves since the end of the Roman Empire. In 1808 the Portuguese Royal Family, fleeing from Napoleon, took charge in Rio de Janeiro. Some 15,000 Portuguese nobles moved to Brazil. The region changed a lot, becoming more European.
After independence and principally after 1850, Southeast Brazil was "inundated" by European immigrants, who were attracted by the government to replace the African slaves in the coffee plantations. Most immigrants landed in the Port of Santos and have been forwarded to the coffee farms within São Paulo. The vast majority of the immigrants came from Italy. Brazil attracted nearly 5 million immigrants between 1870 and 1953. The large number of Italians are visible in many parts of Southeast Brazil. Their descendants are nowadays predominant in many areas. For example, Northeast São Paulo is 65% Italian.
The arrival of immigrants from several parts of Europe, the Middle-East and Asia produced an ethnically diverse population. The city of Bastos, in São Paulo, is 11.4% Japanese. The city of São Paulo is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan itself.

Northeast

The population of Northeast Brazil is a result of an intensive race mixing, which has occurred in the region for more than four centuries. According to the 2006 census people reported as "brown" make up 62.5% of the population. Those reported as African account for 7.8%.
This region did not have much effect from the massive European immigration that took place in Southern Brazil in the late 19th century and first decades of the 20th century. The Northeast has been a poorer region of Brazil since the decline of sugar cane plantations in the late 17th century, so its economy did not require immigrants.
The ethnic composition of the population starts in the 16th century. The Portuguese settlers rarely brought women, which led to relationships with the Indian women. Later, interracial relationships occurred between Portuguese males and African females. The coast, in the past the place where millions of African slaves arrived to work in sugar-cane plantations, is where nowadays there is a predominance of Mulattoes, those of African and European ancestry. Salvador, Bahia is considered the largest African city outside of Africa, with over 80% of its inhabitants being African-Brazilians. In the interior, there is a predominance of Indian and European mixture.

North

, largely covered by the Amazon rainforest, is the Brazilian region with the largest Amerindian influences, both in culture and ethnicity. Inhabited by diverse indigenous tribes, this part of Brazil was reached by Portuguese and Spanish colonists in the 17th century, but it started to be populated by non-Indians only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exploitation of rubber used in the growing industries of automobiles, has emerged a huge migration to the region.
Many people from the poor Northeast Brazil, mostly Ceará, moved to the Amazon area. The contact between the Indians and the northeastern rubbers created the base of the ethnic composition of the region, with its mixed-race majority.

Central-West

The Central-West region of Brazil was inhabited by diverse Indians when the Portuguese arrived in the early 18th century. The Portuguese came to explore the precious stones that were found there. Contact between the Portuguese and the Indians created a mixed-race population. Until the mid-20th century, Central-West Brazil had a very small population. The situation changed with the construction of Brasília, the new capital of Brazil, in 1960. Many workers were attracted to the region, mostly from northeastern Brazil.
A new wave of settlers started arriving from the 1970s. With the mechanization of agriculture in the South of Brazil, many rural workers of German and Italian origin migrated to Central-West Brazil. In some areas, they are already the majority of the population.

Education and health

The Federal Constitution of 1988 and the 1996 General Law of Education in Brazil attributed to the Federal Government, states, Federal District and municipalities the responsibility of managing the Brazilian educational system, considering three educational public systems as a basis for collaboration between these federal systems. Each of these public educational systems is responsible for its own maintenance, which manages funds as well as mechanisms and sources for financial resources. The new Constitution reserves 25% of state and municipal taxes and 18% of federal taxes for education.
As set out by the Brazilian Constitution, the main responsibility for basic education is attributed to the states and municipalities. Hence, a historical feature of Brazilian basic education is its extremely decentralized nature, which gives great organizational autonomy to sub-national governments in organizing their educational systems. Early childhood education, from 0–6 years, is under exclusive responsibility of the municipalities. Responsibility for compulsory primary education from 1st to 9th grades is shared between states and municipalities. Kindergarten and pre-school education are the responsibility of local levels of government, whereas secondary schools are under the responsibility of the states. Maintenance of the system, including salaries, the definition of teacher career structures and supervision of early childhood, primary, and secondary levels is decentralized, and these levels are responsible for defining their respective curriculum content.
Higher education starts with undergraduate or sequential courses, which may offer different specialization choices such as academic or vocational paths. Depending on the choice, students may improve their educational background with Stricto Sensu or Lato Sensu postgraduate courses. Higher education has three main purposes: teaching, research and extension, each with their own specific contribution to make to a particular course. Diplomas and certificates are proof of having passed through higher education.
In 2003, the literacy rate was at 88 percent of the population, and the youth literacy rate was 93.2 percent. However, Brazilian analysts tend to approach these favorable numbers with suspicion, considering the generally poor levels of performance displayed by students, especially in the public school network.
According to Brazilian Government, the most serious health problems are:
According to the IBGE census 2010 64.6% are Roman Catholics; 24% are Protestants and other Christians, 8% are agnostics, atheists or have no religion, 2% are followers of Spiritism, and 1% are members of other religions. Some of these are Jehovah's Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam and some practice a mixture of different religions, such as Catholicism, Candomblé, and indigenous American religions.
Brazil has the largest Roman Catholic population in the world.
Followers of Protestantism are rising in number. Until 1970, the majority of Brazilian Protestants were adherents of "traditional churches", mostly Lutherans, Presbyterians and Baptists. There are 120,000 Episcopalians in 9 dioceses. Since then, numbers of Pentecostal and Neopentecostal adherents have increased significantly.
Islam in Brazil was first practiced by African slaves. Today, the Muslim population in Brazil is made up mostly of Arab immigrants.
The largest population of Buddhists in Latin America lives in Brazil, due greatly to Brazil's large Japanese population.
According to IBGE 2000 Census, the following are the largest religious denominations in Brazil, with those with more than a half million members only shown.
RankGroupMembersOther information
1Roman Catholic Church135 million
2Non-religious12.5 million
  • including, but not limited to, Atheists and Agnostics
    • 3Assemblies of God'8.4 million
    • General Convention of the Assemblies of God : 3,6 Million.
    • National Convention of the Assemblies of God: 2,5 Million. A.k.a. Madureira Ministry of the Assemblies of God.
    • Other independent Assemblies of God: 2,3 Million, such as Bethesda Assemblies of God.
    4Baptist3.1 million
  • Brazilian Baptist Convention: 1,2 Million adherents. Affiliated to US Southern Baptists.
  • National Baptist Convention: 1 Million. Pentecostal Baptists.
  • Independent Baptist Convention: 400,000. Scandinavian Baptists.
  • Other Baptists: 400,000.
    • 5Christian Congregation of Brazil2.4 million
    6Spiritism2.2 million
  • Kardec Spiritism; does not include Afro-Brazilian Sincretists. Their influence is much larger than their numbers.
    • 7Universal Church of the Kingdom of God'2.1 million
    • Neo-Pentecostal Movement.
    8Calvinists1.5 million
  • Presbyterian Church of Brazil: 1.011,300.
  • Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil: 250,00.
  • Congregationalists: 150,000.
  • Other Calvinists:100,000.
    • 9Foursquare Gospel Church1.3 million
  • Classic Pentecostals in US, but second-wave Pentecostals in Brazil.
    • 10Adventists1.2 million
  • Seventh-day Adventist Church: 900,000.
  • Promise Adventist Church: 150,000. Indigenous Pentecostal Adventists.
  • Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement: 50,000.
  • Other Adventists: 100,000.
    • 11Jehovah's Witnesses1.1 million-
    12Lutherans1 million
  • Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confission.
  • Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil.
  • Other Lutherans.
    • 13God is Love Pentecostal Church774,000
  • Divine Healing movement.
    • 14Afro-Brazilian525,000
  • Umbanda and Candomblé
    • 15Brazilian Catholics500,000
    –Others and no religion declared3.5 million

    Languages

    is the only official language of Brazil. It is spoken by nearly the entire population and is virtually the only language used in schools, newspapers, radio, TV and for all business and administrative purposes. Moreover, Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas, making the language an important part of Brazilian national identity.
    Many Amerindian languages are spoken daily in indigenous communities, primarily in Northern Brazil. Although many of these communities have significant contact with Portuguese, today there are incentives stimulating preservation and the teaching of native languages. According to SIL International, 133 Native American languages are currently endangered. Some of the largest indigenous language groups include Arawak, Carib, Macro-Gê and Tupi. In 2006, the City of São Gabriel da Cachoeira in the region of Cabeça do Cachorro, has adopted some indigenous languages as some of its other official languages along with Portuguese.
    Other languages are spoken by descendants of immigrants, who are usually bilingual, in small rural communities in Southern Brazil. The most important are the Brazilian German dialects, such as Riograndenser Hunsrückisch and the East Pomeranian dialect, and also the Talian, based on the Italian Venetian language. There are also bilingual speakers of Polish, Ukrainian and Russian in Southern Brazil, especially Paraná. In the city of São Paulo, Levantine Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Korean can be heard in the immigrant neighborhoods, such as Liberdade. Yiddish and Hebrew are used by Jewish communities mainly in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Brasília, Belo Horizonte and Recife as well as the Vlax Romani dialect by Gypsy communities all across the nation.

    ''The World Factbook'' demographic statistics

    The following demographic statistics are from The World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated

    Nationality