By 1950 it had grown to 51,944,400, and in 1970 it reached 93,139,000. By 1991 Brazil was the world's sixth most populous nation, with about 2.7 % of the world's 5.3 billion people or 147,054,000 inhabitants. In July 1996, the population was counted as being 157,079,500, but around in 1997 to be nearly 160 million. Projections suggest a total population of 169 million in 2000 and 210 million in 2020, and population stability at about 250 million in 2050. The population growth rate for the 1990 to 2000 time is around at 1.5 % per year. As a result of the decline in mortality and continued high fertility during the 1950s and 1960s, the average growth rate was nearly 3 % per year.

Average population density in Brazil in 1994 was 19 inhabitants per square kilometer. There was a wide variation between the densely populated Southeast and South, on the one hand, and the sparse North and Center-West, on the other, with the Northeast at intermediate levels.

Brazil’s population is a mixture of Native American, European, and African peoples. These groups have intermingled over the years to create a society with considerable ethnic complexity. The Native American population has been in Brazil the longest, but is now the smallest group.