Rank | Group | Members | Other information |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Roman Catholic Church | 135 million |
|
2 | Non-religious | 12.5 million |
|
3 | Assemblies of God (Assembléias de Deus) |
8.4 million |
|
4 | Baptist | 3.1 million |
|
5 | Christian Congregation of Brazil | 2.4 million | |
6 | Spiritism | 2.2 million |
|
7 | Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus) |
2.1 million |
|
8 | Foursquare Gospel Church | 1.3 million |
|
9 | Adventists | 1.2 million |
|
10 | Jehovah's Witnesses | 1.1 million | |
11 | Lutherans | 1 million |
|
12 | Calvinists | 981,000 |
|
13 | God is Love Pentecostal Church | 774,000 |
|
14 | Afro-Brazilian | 525,000 |
|
15 | Brazilian Catholics | 500,000 | |
– | Others and no religion declared | 3.5 million |
Brazil's population is very diverse, comprising many races and ethnic groups. In general, Brazilians trace their origins from five sources: Europeans, Western and Central-Western Africans, Amerindians, Levantines, and East Asians.
Brazil has conducted a periodical population census since 1872. Brazil is widely known to be one of the most diverse countries in the world. 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.
Historically, Brazil has experienced large degrees of ethnic and racial admixture, assimilation of cultures and syncretism.
According to the 2008 PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), conducted by the IBGE, the Brazilian Statistics bureau, there were about 189,953,000 inhabitants in 2008. As of the latest (2010) census, the Brazilian government estimates its population at 190.8 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 (with some exceptions) the population is counted.
Brazil is the fifth 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.
According to the 2015 revision of the World Population Prospects the total population was 198,614,000 in 2010, compared to only 53,975,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 13 in 2015 was 25.0%, 69.2% was between 15 and 61 years of age, while 7.8% was 65 years or older.
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.