Porto Alegre - Demographics

Demographics

According to the 2010 IBGE Census, there were 1,365,039 people residing in the city of Porto Alegre. The census revealed the following numbers: 1,116,659 White people (79.2%), 143,890 Black people (10.2%), 141,411 Brown (Multiracial) people (10%), 4,062 Asian people (0.3%), 3,308 Amerindian people (0.2%). In 2010, the city of Porto Alegre was the 10th most populous city in Brazil. In 2010, the city had 269,519 opposite-sex couples and 1,401 same-sex couples. The population of Porto Alegre was 53.6% female and 46.4% male.

Porto Alegre is mostly composed of Brazilians of European descent. Its colonization started in the mid-18th century, mostly with the arrival of Portuguese colonists from the Azores Islands. From 1748 to 1756, 2,300 Azoreans were sent to the region by the King of Portugal to protect Southern Brazil from neighboring invaders. These colonists, mostly composed of married couples, established the city of Porto dos Casais (literally translated "harbor of the couples"), nowadays Porto Alegre. In 1775, 55% of Rio Grande do Sul's population was of Azorean Portuguese origin. Porto Alegre was composed mainly of Azoreans and their African slaves until the first half of the 19th century.

The first non-Portuguese people to settle Rio Grande do Sul were German immigrants. In 1824, the first immigrants from Germany arrived in Porto Alegre, but they were sent to what is now the city of São Leopoldo (28 km (17 mi) away). From 1824 to 1914, 50 thousand Germans arrived in Rio Grande do Sul. Most of these colonists had rural communities in the countryside of the State as their first destination. The large rural exodus in Brazil in the early 20th century brought many German-descendants to Porto Alegre and, nowadays, they compose a large percentage of the population. The second largest group of immigrants who arrived in Porto Alegre were the Italians. They started immigrating to Brazil in 1875, mainly from the Northern Italian Veneto region. As the Germans, Italians were also first sent to rural communities, mainly in the Serra Gaúcha region. After some decades, many of them started to migrate to other parts of Rio Grande do Sul, including Porto Alegre.Minority communities of immigrants, such as Central Europeans from Poland and Eastern Europeans from Ukraine; Arabs from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria; Asians from Japan and Jews also made Porto Alegre their home. According to an autosomal DNA genetic study from 2011, the ancestral composition of the population of Porto Alegre is: 77,70% European, 12,70% African and 9,60% Native American.