Ukrainian descendants in Curitiba. | |
Total population | |
---|---|
c. 600,000[1] 0.3% of Brazil's population (2020) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Brazil: Mainly Paraná[2] and in minor degree Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo. Brazilian diaspora in Argentina: Misiones; Paraguay: Itapúa; and Canada: Toronto and Montreal. | |
Languages | |
Predominantly Ukrainian in the countryside, Portuguese in urban areas and Russian | |
Religion | |
85% Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church[3] · minority Eastern Orthodox Church and Judaism · other Christians | |
Related ethnic groups | |
White Brazilians · Russian Brazilians · Polish Brazilians · Lithuanian Brazilians |
Ukrainian Brazilians (Portuguese: Ucraino-brasileiro, Ucraniano-brasileiro; Ukrainian: Українські бразильці, Ukrainski brazyltsi) are Brazilian citizens born in Ukraine, or Brazilians of Ukrainian descent who remain connected, in some degree, to Ukrainian culture.
In 1994, 400,000 people of Ukrainian descent lived in Brazil, 80% (or approximately 350,000) of whom lived in a compact region approximately 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 sq mi) in size (an area slightly smaller than Trinidad and Tobago), in the hilly south central part of the state of Paraná in southern Brazil.[2][3] They refer to this region as "Brazilian Ukraine."[4][5] Smaller numbers of Ukrainians have settled in São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, and Paraíba.[3]
The cities with the largest number of Ukrainians are Prudentópolis (approximately 38,000 Ukrainians, or 75% of the city's population), Curitiba (33,000 Ukrainians), and União da Vitória (approximately 26,400 Ukrainians or 50% of the city's population).[6] In 2021, the population of Ukrainian descent in Brazil is estimated to be at 600,000.[1] Ukrainian-Brazilians also settled in neighboring regions of Argentina and Paraguay, notably Misiones in Argentina and Itapúa in Paraguay both regions already had a significant Ukrainian and Polish ancestral composition. There is also a significant community of Ukrainian and Polish Brazilians in North America, concentrated in Toronto and Montreal. Around 5% of Canadians of Ukrainian and Polish ancestry have origins in Latin America.
Brazil has the third largest Ukrainian community in the Americas,[2] and the third largest Ukrainian population outside of the former Soviet Union; only Canada and the United States have larger Ukrainian populations. In comparison to Ukrainians in North America, the Ukrainian community in Brazil (as well as in neighboring Argentina) tends to be more descended from earlier waves of immigration, is poorer, more rural, has less organizational strength, and is more focused on the Church as the center of cultural identity.[7]
Seventy percent of Brazil's Ukrainians live in agricultural communities known as "colonies" where they tend crops such as wheat, rye, buckwheat, rice, black beans, and erva mate, a local type of tea.[3] These colonies are isolated from modern areas of Brazil's economy and from non-Ukrainians, and in many respects closely resemble Galician (Western Ukrainian) villages of the 19th century.[8]
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