According to the IBGE of 2007, there were 11,714,000 people residing in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro. The population density was 4.781 inh./km². The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) census revealed the following percentage: 6,278,704 White people (53.6%), 3,935,904 Brown people (33.6%), 1,440,822 Black people (12.3%) and 58,000 Asian or Amerindian people (0.5%).
Different ethnic groups contributed to the formation of the population of Rio de Janeiro. Before European colonization, there were at least seven different indigenous peoples speaking 20 languages in the region. A part of them joined the Portuguese and the other the French. Those who joined the French were then exterminated by the Portuguese, while the other part was assimilated.
Rio de Janeiro is home to the largest Portuguese population outside of Lisbon. The Portuguese community (the oldest in the city) has left a remarkable legacy to Rio de Janeiro since the 16th century.
After independence, Rio de Janeiro remained gateway for thousands of Portuguese immigrants, mainly in the first decades of the 20th century. They were mainly poor peasants who, later, found prosperity in Rio as small traders.Besides the influence on ethnicity, the Portuguese left its architecture and also the accent of the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, which sounds more Portuguese than the other Brazilians.
The black community, whose ancestors were brought as slaves, had a great impact in the composition of Rio's population. Nowadays, nearly half of its population is Black or part-Black. Most of the slaves in Rio came from Angola or Mozambique. Rio's carnival, with its samba, is probably the most remarkable influence from the black community.
As a result of the diversity of immigrants who came to Brazil between the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, one may find in Rio de Janeiro many Jews, Arabs of Lebanese and Syrian origin, Italians, Spaniards, Germans and people from different parts of Brazil.
