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Brazilian people
Brazil's population comes from many racial and ethnic groups. The last National Research for Sample of Domiciles (PNAD) census revealed the following: 49.7% of the population self-identified as White, about 93 million; 42.6% Pardo (meaning brown in Portuguese), about 79 million; 6.9% Black, about 13 million; 0.5% Asian, about 1 million; and 0.3% Amerindian, about 519,000. Most Brazilians can trace their ancestry to the country's indigenous Amerindians, Portuguese colonists, or African slaves, either alone, in combination with one or both of the others, and/or in combination with other ethnic or racial groups. Since the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500s, this miscegenation between the three groups has been a part of the evolution of the people of Brazil. In the over three centuries of Portuguese colonization, Brazil received more than 700,000 Portuguese settlers and 4 million African slaves.
Starting in the late 19th century, Brazil opened its doors to immigration: people of over 60 nationalities immigrated to Brazil. About 5 million European and Asian immigrants arrived from 1870 to 1953, most of them from Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Germany. In the early 20th century, people from Japan and the Middle-East also arrived. The immigrants and their descendants had an important impact in the ethnic composition of the Brazilian population, and many diasporas are present in the country.
Brazil has the largest population of Italian origin outside of Italy, with over 25 million Italian Brazilians, the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, with 1.6 million Japanese Brazilians, the largest Arab population outside of the Middle East, with 10 million Arab Brazilians. As well the second largest German population outside of Germany, with 12 million German Brazilians, the second largest Spanish population outside of Spain, with 15 million Spanish Brazilians, the second largest Polish population outside of Poland, with 1.8 million Polish Brazilians.
However, the largest and oldest European ethnic group in Brazil is the Portuguese Brazilian, and most Brazilians can trace their ancestry to an ethnic Portuguese or a mixed-race Portuguese. A characteristic of Brazil is the race mixing. Genetically, most Brazilians have some degree of European, African, and Amerindian ancestry. The entire population can be considered a single "Brazilian" ethnic group, with highly varied racial types and backgrounds, but without clear ethnic sub-divisions.
About 81.3% of Brazilians live in an urban area. The metropolitan areas are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte, respectively with 19.7, 11.4, and 5.4 million inhabitants. In 2007, fourteen cities had more than 1 million residents, and six global cities had over 2 million (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Brasília, Fortaleza, and Belo Horizonte). Almost all the capitals are the largest city in their corresponding state, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina. There are also non-capital metropolitan areas in the states of São Paulo (Campinas, Santos and the Paraíba Valley), Minas Gerais (Steel Valley), Rio Grande do Sul (Sinos Valley), and Santa Catarina (Itajaí Valley).
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