Technical article
Brazil's Five Regions: Where the People Live, and Where That Leaves a Newcomer
A fair first step is to see where people already live.
Picture a couple named Greg and Anna. Both are 58, and both like the idea of living in South America. Greg wants a big city with good restaurants. Anna wants somewhere quiet. They find that Brazil is as large as a continent and that Paraguay is next door. Where do they even start?
A fair first step is to see where people already live. The census is the government's own count.
Brazil: where people live
The national statistics institute, IBGE, published first results from its 2022 census. It counted 203,062,512 residents, and gave them by region.
| Region | Residents | Share of Brazil |
|---|---|---|
| Sudeste (southeast) | 84,847,187 | 41.8% |
| Nordeste (northeast) | 54,644,582 | 26.9% |
| Sul (south) | 29,933,315 | 14.7% |
| Norte (north) | 17,349,619 | 8.5% |
| Centro-Oeste (center-west) | 16,287,809 | 8.0% |
IBGE says the Sudeste "se mantém como a região mais populosa" (stays the most populous region; my translation). São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro together hold 39.9% of all residents.
In the Nordeste, which holds more than a quarter of the country, the largest states in the table are Bahia with 14,136,417, Pernambuco with 9,058,155 and Ceará with 8,791,688. Rio Grande do Norte has 3,302,406.
One note on numbers. IBGE's own census overview page shows 203,080,756 in one place and 202,709,774 in another, with no date. The first-results book says 203,062,512. I use the book and do not pick between them. The differences are small next to the size of the country.
What this suggests, in my arithmetic: about four in ten Brazilians live in the Sudeste, and about one in six lives in the Norte and Centro-Oeste combined. A newcomer who wants a big city has a lot of choice in the southeast. A newcomer who wants a quiet place will find the map thinner in the north and center-west.
Paraguay: where people live
Paraguay's statistics office (INE) published the final results of its 2022 census. It counted 6,109,903 residents. The page gives each department.
| Department | Residents | Share of Paraguay (my arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|
| Central (the ring around the capital) | 1,883,927 | 30.8% |
| Alto Paraná (Ciudad del Este) | 763,702 | 12.5% |
| Asunción (the capital) | 462,241 | 7.6% |
| Itapúa | 449,642 | 7.4% |
| Caaguazú | 431,519 | 7.1% |
| San Pedro | 355,175 | 5.8% |
| Cordillera | 268,037 | 4.4% |
| The three western Chaco departments (Presidente Hayes, Boquerón, Alto Paraguay) | 211,586 | 3.5% |
By my arithmetic, the capital and Central together hold 2,346,168 people, 38.4% of the country, and the whole western Chaco holds about 3.5%. The office says half of Paraguayans were 29 or younger in 2022, and 8.6% were 65 or older. The oldest departments are Ñeembucú (13.9% aged 65 or more) and Paraguarí (13.3%), then Asunción (12.1%). The median age in Asunción is 33.
What this suggests, in my reading: the capital area is the big place by far, and a newcomer who wants quiet will find the map thin in the west, where very few people live.
What this article leaves for another day
- Monthly spending, climate and residence rules by region in Brazil. Each needs its own page.
- Where foreign residents settle in Paraguay and how land is held. The census page counts people by department and does not split them by origin; a lawyer in Paraguay answers the land question.
- State figures for the Sudeste, Sul and Centro-Oeste in Brazil, which sit in the IBGE state tables.
You could…
- Read the IBGE state tables for the regions that interest you.
- Visit two regions that feel very different before you decide.
- Ask a lawyer in Brazil or Paraguay how land and residence work for a buyer from abroad.
When you picture your daily life, are you near a city of millions or a town where people know your name?
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: 10 and 11 October 2026.
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