Brazil: Encyclopedia II - Brazil - Demographics

Brazil - Demographics

Brazil is a melting-pot of different ethnicities and origins.

The dominant ancestry among Brazilians is the Portuguese, descendants of the early colonists or of 19th and 20th centuries Portuguese immigrants. The settlement of Portuguese started in Brazil after 1532, when the active process of colonization began since the founding of São Vicente. Until independence in 1822, the Portuguese were the only European nation that successfully settled in Brazil, and most of Brazil's culture is based on that of Portugal. The Dutch and the French also colonized Brazil during the 17th century, but their presence lasted only a few decades.

The original Amerindian population of Brazil (between 3-5 million) has in large part been exterminated or assimilated into the Portuguese population. Since the beginning of Brazil's colonization, intermarriage between the Portuguese and Native Brazilians has been common. Nowadays, there are 700,000 Native-Americans in Brazil, comprising less than 1% of the national population.

Brazil has a large black population, descended from African slaves brought to the country from the 16th century until the 19th century. More than 3 million Africans were brought to Brazil until the end of slaves traffic, in 1850. They were mainly from Angola, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and São Tomé e Príncipe. Brazil has the largest population of African descended people after Nigeria. The African population in Brazil has mixed substantially with the Portuguese, resulting in a large mixed-race population.

Beginning in the 19th century, the Brazilian government stimulated European immigration to substitute for the manpower of the former slaves. The first non-Portuguese immigrants to settle in Brazil were Germans, in 1824. In 1869 the first Polish immigrants settled in Brazil. However, strong European immigration to Brazil began only after 1875, when immigration from Italy, Portugal and Spain increased. According to the Memorial do Imigrante, between 1870 and 1953, Brazil attracted nearly 5.5 million immigrants, Italians (1,550,000), Portuguese (1,470,000), Spaniards (650,000), Germans (210,000), Japanese (190,000), Poles or Russian (120,000) and 650,000 of many other nationalities. Brazil is home to the largest Italian population outside of Italy, with 25 million Italians and Italian-descended Brazilians.

Starting in the early 20th century, Brazil also received a large number of Asians: Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese immigrants. The Japanese are the largest Asian minority in Brazil, and Japanese-Brazilians are the largest Japanese population outside of Japan (1.5 million). Significant immigration from the Middle-East (Lebanon and Syria) has also occurred.

Brazil's population is mostly concentrated along the coast, with a lower population density in the interior. The population of the southern states is mainly of European descent, while the majority of the inhabitants of the north and northeast are of mixed ancestry (Amerindians, Africans and Europeans).

Brazil - Ethnicity and race

According to the 2000 IBGE census:

• white 53.7%
• mixed race 38.5%
• black 6.2%
• asian 0.6%
• amerindian 0.3%
• unspecified 0.7%

Most white Brazilians are of Portuguese descent, though Brazilians of Italian descent are also common. There are large populations of German, Spanish and Polish descent. Minority ancestries includes Austrian, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Swiss, among others.

Brazilians of Portuguese ancestry are found in the entire country, while those of Italian descent are predominantly in Southern and Southeastern Brazil. The other white ethnic groups, mainly Brazilians of German descent, are concentrated in the extreme South of Brazil. There are entire cities settled by Germans-Brazilians in Southern Brazil.

There is a considerable number of Japanese descendants. Brazil has the largest japanese descendant population in the world outside Japan, with estimated 800.000 people.

Brazilians of mixed-race ancestry are found in the whole country, although most of them live in the Northern and Northeastern states. Mixed-race Brazilians include mulatto, caboclo (or mameluco) and cafuzo. The mulattoes, those mixed white and black, make up the majority of them and predominate in the coast of Northeastern Brazil and other parts of the country. Caboclos, mixed white and amerindian, predominate in Northern and parts of Northeast Brazil, and the cafuzos, those mixed black and amerindian, are the less numerous group, living mainly in the Northeastern part of Brazil. However, most mixed race Brazilians are in fact tri-racial, mixed whites, blacks and amerindians.

Black Brazilians are concentrated mostly in the Northeastern states, although large black populations can be found throughout the country. The black population in Brazil is probably higher than 6.2%, since many black Brazilians classify themselves as mixed-race, due to local cultural and social aspects when considering the subject of race.

Asian Brazilians (mainly of Japanese descent) and Arab Brazilians are concentrated in the Southeastern states (mainly in São Paulo). The population of Arab descent in Brazil is between 5-8 million people, most of them of Christian Lebanese or Syrian descent.

Amerindian Brazilians are concentrated in the Northern states, mostly in the Amazon area. Indian reservations make up 10% of Brazil's territory.

Racism in Brazil is an unbailable crime.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Demographics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki