There are a lot of people in Brazil! According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE – the population of Brazil is estimated, for 2014, at more than 202 million people. But as our country has a territorial area of 8.5 million km², means we have an average of about 27 people for every square kilometer, Othat is, there is space for everyone!
The big problem is that the Brazilian population it is irregularly distributed throughout our territory.And what does it mean?This means that some regions concentrate more people, while in others there is more space left, even because we need places where nature is better preserved, free from cities, large farms and other activities human beings.
If we look at the map below, we can see how the distribution of the Brazilian population occurs:
Map of the distribution of the Brazilian population across the territory ¹
As we can see, the distribution of the Brazilian population is very limited to the coastal areas of the country. This is due to historical and geographical reasons, which go back to the times of colonization until later periods.For example: the great economic and political concentration of Brazil in the Southeast of Brazil, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, it made most of the country's inhabitants concentrate on this region.
In general numbers, the distribution of the Brazilian population is made as follows, according to the 2010 Demographic Census data:
Southeast: as we have already said, it is the most populous region in Brazil, with more than 80 million inhabitants, 42% of the Brazilian population and 87 inhabitants for every square kilometer. It's a lot of people in the same place! To give you an idea, if we consider the city of São Paulo and its metropolitan region, we have more inhabitants (19 million) than the entire Midwest!
North East:it is the second most populous region, with almost 54 million people and 27.7% of our country's population. Altogether, there are more than 34 people for each square kilometer.
South:the third most populous region in Brazil, with 27 million inhabitants. As its area is smaller among Brazilian regions, its population density (inhabitants per square kilometer) is 47.8 inhab/km².
North: it is the fourth most populous, winning only from the Brazilian Midwest. Its population is 16 million people, but we can say that this is the “empty” region in the country, as it is the largest and has a lot of space... In all, its demographic density is four inhabitants for every kilometer!
Midwest: it is in last place and has 14.5 million people, with a demographic density of 8.6 inhabitants/km². Even so, we have large cities in this region, Brasília and Goiânia being the largest of them.
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¹ Map source: Archella & Thréry, 2008 / Wikimedia Commons
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
