The main ancestry of current white Brazilians is Portuguese.[5] Historically, the Portuguese were the Europeans who mostly immigrated to Brazil: it is estimated that, between 1500 and 1808, 500,000 of them went to live in Brazil,[6] and the Portuguese were practically the only European group to have definitively settled in colonial Brazil.
Furthermore, even after independence, the Portuguese were among the nationalities that mostly immigrated to Brazil.[6] Between 1884 and 1959, 4,734,494 immigrants entered Brazil, mostly from Portugal and Italy, but also from Spain, Germany, Poland and other countries;[7] nowadays millions of Brazilians are also descended from these immigrants.[8]
The white Brazilian population is spread throughout Brazil's territory, but its highest percentage is found in the three southernmost states, where 72.6% of the population claims to be White in the censuses, whereas the Southeast region has the largest absolute numbers.[9]
According to the 2022 Census, the states with the highest percentage of white Brazilians are: Rio Grande do Sul (78.4%), Santa Catarina (78.0%), Paraná (64.6%), and São Paulo (57.8%). Other states with significant percentages are: Rio de Janeiro (42%), Mato Grosso do Sul (42.4%) and Espírito Santo (42.06%). São Paulo has the largest population in absolute numbers with 25 million whites.[2]