Demographics of Brazil

With a population density of 22.5 inhabitants per square kilometer, Brazil is one of the most populous countries in the world. In recent years, population growth has been reduced, which was very high until the 1960s. The reasons for the decrease in population growth are related to urbanization, industrialization and incentives to reduce the rate of birth rate (such as the spread of contraceptives).

Population

Total population

217 353 588 (2022)

Projections

• Year 2030: 223 852 116
• Year 2040: 229 058 886
• Year 2050: 228 980 400
• Year 2060: 224 411 614
• Year 2070: 215 858 438
• Year 2080: 204 530 517
• Year 2090: 192 347 340
• Year 2100: 180 682 762

Source: Brazil - Population 1950 - 2100

Demographic profile

The rapid decline in fertility in Brazil since the 1960s is the main factor behind the slowing rate of population growth, the aging of the population, and the rapid demographic transition of the country.

Brasilia has not taken full advantage of its large working-age population to develop its human capital and strengthen its social and economic institutions, but it is funding a study abroad program to bring skilled workers to the country. The current favorable age structure will begin to change around 2025, with the reduction of the active population and the increase in the proportion of older people in the total population. Well-funded public pensions have nearly eliminated poverty among the elderly, and Bolsa Família and other social programs have lifted tens of millions of people out of poverty. More than half of the Brazilian population considers itself middle class, but levels of poverty and income inequality remain high; In the Northeast, North, and Midwest, women, and black, mixed-race, and indigenous populations are disproportionately affected. The disparity of opportunities fosters social exclusion and contributes to Brazil's high crime rate, especially violent crime in the cities and favelas.

Brazil has traditionally been a net recipient of immigrants, with the southeast being their main destination. After the ban on importing African slaves in the mid-19th century, Brazil sought out Europeans (Italians, Portuguese, Spanish and Germans) and later Asians (Japanese) to work in agriculture, especially growing coffee. Recent immigrants come mainly from Argentina, Chile and the Andean countries (many are unskilled illegal immigrants) or are returning Brazilian citizens. Since Brazil's economic decline in the 1980s, emigration to the United States, Europe, and Japan has increased, but is negligible relative to Brazil's total population. Most of these emigrants have a good level of education and are middle class. Fewer Brazilian peasants migrate to neighboring countries to work in agriculture.

Basic indicators

Brazil has a low population density of 25 inhabitants per km², below the average for the planet and much lower than other countries with a similar population, such as Japan (337 inhabitants per km²). The distribution of the population in Brazil is very uneven, with a concentration in the coastal areas, especially in the southeast and northeast of the country. Another important nucleus is the region of the southern states. The least populated areas are in the Center-West and in the North.

Until recently, the crude birth rate in Brazil was low with a level similar to that of developing countries. However, there has been a significant decrease in recent years, which can be explained by the decrease in the urban population -recording more births due to the gradual incorporation of women into the labor market- and the spread of birth control. On the other hand, the social cost of maintaining and educating children is very high, especially in urban areas. Thus, there has been a reduction in the rate from 8.9‰ in 2001 to 3.1‰ in 2017 (Source: I.B.G.E.).

Since the 1940s, Brazil's crude death rate has also decreased, reflecting a series of improvements, such as the expansion of medical services and vaccination campaigns in peripheral areas, as well as the increase quantity of medical and hospital care. The crude mortality rate was 6.2‰ in 2008, reaching a vegetative growth of 7.65‰ (0.72%). In this way, a constant decline in the natural growth of the population has been consolidated since 2001, where this indicator was around 14.0‰ (1.4%) that year.

There is little contribution of international migration to the growth of the Brazilian population. Meanwhile, in internal migration there is a significant influx of Brazilians from the northeastern states to the more developed ones in the southeast.

Brazil has an infant mortality rate of 11.39‰ in 2019, among the lowest in other countries in the region such as Bolivia, Paraguay. However, there are variations in this indicator between the states of the North and the Northeast –the poorest– that have the highest rates of infant mortality in the country, which decreases in the states of the South.

Life expectancy (2020) is 77.12 years –73.58 years for men and 80.66 for women– according to the I.B.G.E.

The global fertility rate has also decreased significantly in the last decade, going from 2.78 children per woman in 1998 to 1.63 in 2019. Brazil has always had low fertility rates, since towards the middle of the In the 20th century, the rate was 6 children per woman, with a significant reduction, as has occurred in most developing countries. The lowest levels of fertility are found in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro with a rate above 1.35 children per woman, at the same level as European countries.

The urbanization rate is 89% in 2019 against 79.6% in 1998, confirming a gradual growth of urbanization in the country.

The level of literacy reaches almost 94.31% of the population in 2019.

Territorial organization

Population density by states (2019).

Population growth by states 2000-2010.

São Paulo, capital of the State of São Paulo.

Rio de Janeiro, capital of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Due to its large population, Brazil has three megacities (2019 est.):

• The São Paulo Metropolitan Region with approximately 29,000.000 inhabitants, on an area of 8,051 km2. In this way, it is the largest megalopolis in size and population of Latin America.
• The Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro also has a population of 13,217,000.
• The Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte with approximately 6,984,000 inhabitants.

Most populated cities

Historical evolution

The Portuguese had a strong influence on the Brazilian population.

The various estimates speak of a population of between one and ten million inhabitants, of which more than half were in the Amazon. Contact with the Portuguese had strong consequences on its population, which was reduced by the plagues, wars and destruction of their traditional way of life, in addition to the fact that a large number of tribes fled to the interior jungle. In a hundred years, the aboriginal population fell to 700,000 individuals with 100,000 members from other ethnic groups.

Some two centuries later, around 1700, the population under control was 300,000 whites, mestizos, blacks, mulattoes and zambos, adding to them a total Amerindian population was close to 950,000 to one million individuals. Around 1865, up to a million indigenous people lived in the uncolonized Amazon region. After the colonization of the area, there were about 80 to 200 thousand left in 1957. Diseases, the alteration of their ways of life, forced labor, massive displacements and massacres were the main causes of the demographic decline. Despite this, the protection given by the Brazilian State has allowed some recovery and recognition of individuals and communities. In 1992, the United Nations estimated them at 1,500,000.

The majority indigenous population changed with the massive immigration of the Portuguese, the greater number of slaves exported from Africa, the assimilation of mestizos and Amerindians, and the colonization of the Lower Amazon, which would cost a great number of of indigenous lives. Between 1500 and 1700 some 100,000 Portuguese would enter the colony, many of them young men who married indigenous women. Massive immigration would take place in the 18th century when some 600,000 Lusitanos, entire families, settled, mainly to work in the recently discovered gold mines. After independence, the entry of immigrants of European origin into the country was released: two million did so by the end of the 19th century and another 2.2 million in the first three decades of the XX. For this reason, for much of the century the Brazilian population was classified as white majority, since with this immigration an important process of whitening of a large part of the mestizo and mulatto population.

The case of forced immigration of Africans was even greater. Between 1550 and 1800, 2.2 to 3 million slaves survived, of whom at least 1,400,000 were from Angola, 600,000 from the Congo and 100,000 from other regions. Due to the high annual mortality (10%), its growth was very slow and was due to the arrival of new shipments. While in the 17th century two million blacks were introduced, to which 100 thousand from the previous century were added, for the following century the figure was a couple of million more individuals and 1,500,000 in the first half of the century. XIX. Although a large percentage died in forced labor, by the time of independence more than half the population was black and enslaved.

Brazil was the region of America that received the most slaves. Other estimates speak of 50,000 arrivals in the 16th century, 500,000 in the 17th century and 1,700,000 in the 18th century. By 1800 the total African contribution was 2.5 million souls in the Lusitanian colony compared to the million or million and a half in the Spanish territories. In the case of the Caribbean, 610,000 blacks arrived in Jamaica and 700,000 in Cuba, but a large percentage of them died.

The vast majority of Africans were adult males (~75%), and with a very low life expectancy.

Pre-Columbian population of Brazil:

Estimates of the population of Brazil by ethnic group during the colonial period (mainly Rosemblat estimates):

Evolution of the population of Brazil since independence, data from censuses carried out by the Brazilian state:

Ethnic groups

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  Historical center of the city of Salvador de Bahia, of Portuguese colonial architecture.

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  An indigenous community in the state of Maranhão, in 2013.

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  Dances and festivities of African immigrants transcended in Brazilian culture, like this in Olinda.

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  Japanese immigrants in Bastos in 1930.

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  Syrian folk group in Sao Paulo in 2012.

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  German house in the state of Rio Grande del Sur.

Brazil is a multi-ethnic country, with a history that begins with the original Amerindian settlement and continues with a strong process of Portuguese European colonization, after the discovery of America, and an important introduction of African slaves for the productivity of colonial Brazil, as well as the policy of attracting immigrants after the independence of the country, this last immigration flow coming mainly from Europeans and Arabs, and to a lesser extent from East Asians. All of the above had an impact on a diversity of ancestral genetic contributions, which must also be considered, the high degree of miscegenation between all these populations and their components. Genetic studies provide evidence of this mixture, fundamentally of a triraciality in the Brazilian population, constituted in order of importance, firstly by European contributions, followed by African and indigenous contributions:

However, such contributions are not uniform throughout the territory: the European contribution tends to be greater in the south and the African in the east of the country, as well as the greater indigenous contribution is to the north and west of the country. Brazilian territory, mainly in the Amazon:

Regarding the mixture of these contributions, the researcher Francisco Lizcano estimated, historiographically, that the proportions of ethnic groups and mixtures would be made up of 53.8% Creoles, 39.1% browns, 6.2% black, 0.5% East Asian, and 0.4% Native American.

Although the percentage of the indigenous population may be less represented within the country, the situation in absolute terms changes, due to the demographic size of the country. A UN study on the indigenous population in Latin America estimated that there were 1.5 million indigenous people living in Brazil in 1992.

Religion

Cathedral of Brasilia.

According to data from the 2010 census, 64.6% of Brazilians are Catholic. Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world, with more than 120 million followers. The number of Protestants has grown rapidly and currently represents 24.2% of the population.

Other religions are Espiritismo (2%), Afro-Brazilian religions (2%), others (2%), as well as people without religion (1%). The Jewish population in Brazil is 100 thousand people, mainly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Minorities are made up of indigenous people who retain their religion and customs, especially in the Amazon, such as União do Vegetal and Santo Daime.

As a result of black slavery, some Afro-Brazilians practice African beliefs such as animism, candomblé, and umbanda.

The arrival of immigrants from Asia brought with them the practice of the following minority religions: Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism and Islam, on the rise in the country.