Sao Paulo Population 2024

Sao Paulo's 2024 population is now estimated at 22,806,704In 1950, the population of Sao Paulo was 2,334,038Sao Paulo has grown by 186,968 in the last year, which represents a 0.83% annual change.These population estimates and projections come from the latest revision of the UN World Urbanization Prospects. These estimates represent the Urban agglomeration of Sao Paulo, which typically includes Sao Paulo's population in addition to adjacent suburban areas.

São Paulo refers to both a state and city in Brazil, but this article will only cover the scope of the city itself. As of 2016, it had an urban population of 11,967,825.

São Paulo is the largest city of Brazil and the largest city proper in the Americas and the southern hemisphere. It's also one of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas in the world. São Paulo is a global city with a strong influence in the arts, entertainment, finance and commerce, and the city hosts the largest gay pride parade in the world. Known colloquially as Sampa or Cidade da Garoa (city of drizzle), the municipality had a 2011 population of 11.31 million.

The 2018 population of São Paulo is estimated at over 12 million residents.

At the 2010 IBGE Census, São Paulo was home to 10,659,386 people, a figure that is estimated to have grown to 11.9 million in 2016. The density in the city proper is 7,216.3 people per square kilometer (18,690 per square mile), but the metropolitan region is home to over 21 million people, with a much lower density of 2,469 people per square kilometer.

Greater São Paulo actually has many definitions, but the legal definition of Região Metropolitana de São Paulo has 39 municipalities with a 2016 estimated population of 21 million people. This definition includes 38 smaller cities around São Paulo. Because the city has such a huge urban sprawl, there is another definition for its metropolitan area: Complexo Metropolitano Expandido, which is the same as a Combined Statistical Area in the United States. By this definition, greater São Paulo is the third largest city in the world with more than 27 million residents.

Historical Immigration into São Paulo

São Paulo residents, known as Paulistanos, are some of the most ethnically diverse in the country. At the end of slave trafficking in Brazil in 1850, the city replaced African labor with voluntary immigrants to work its coffee plantations. This brought in a wave of German, Portuguese and Swiss immigrants, followed by additional waves of Portuguese and Italian immigrants from the mid-19th century through the beginning of the 20th century.

This means the state of São Paulo has one of the largest immigrant communities in Brazil. When slavery was abolished in 1888, the city received huge swells of European immigrants, and by 1897, Italians accounted for more than 50% of São Paulo's population. From 1908 to 1941, a large number of Japanese immigrants arrived, while Koreans and Chinese moved to the region in the 1960's. In present day, São Paulo is seeing a huge wave of migration from Bolivia.

In 1920, the Governor of São Paulo even noted the city's huge immigrant population by saying, "If the owner of each house in São Paulo display the flag of the country of origin on the roof, from above São Paulo would look like an Italian city."

São Paulo Demographics

São Paulo is still a city of immigrants today, and a study by the University of São Paulo shows the diversity. 81% of students said they were descendants of foreign immigrants, with the most common ancestry groups being: Italian (30.5%), Portuguese (23%), Spanish (14%), Japanese (8%), German (5.6%), African (2.8%), Arab (2.4%) and Jewish (1.2%).

In the metropolitan area, there are:

  • 6 million of Italian descent
  • 3 million of Portuguese descent
  • 1.7 mllion of African descent
  • 1 million of Arab descent
  • 665,000 of Japanese descent
  • 400,000 of German descent
  • 250,000 of French descent
  • 150,000 of Greek descent
  • 120,000 of Chinese descent
  • 120,000 to 300,000 Bolivian immigrants
  • 50,000 of Korean descent and
  • 40,000 Jews

The ethnic breakdown of São Paulo according to the 2010 Census was 65.6% white, 26.5% brown or mixed people, 5.5% black, 2.2% Asian and 0.2% Amerindian.

São Paulo Population Growth

From 1950 to 1975, São Paulo was one of the fastest growing urban areas on earth. From 1980 to 2000, it also ranked 4th in population among the urban areas of the world, but it has since been displaced from this list by the unprecedented growth in areas like Delhi. The state of São Paulo has more than 44 million residents in 2016,) which is more than the US state of California in an area with just 2/3 the land.

São Paulo's central city continues to grow, and in the last decade, it has grown by over one million. 57% of its urban area population still lives in the central city, but growth in the suburbs is picking up. While the speed at which the central city grew began to slow in the 1980s, the suburban growth has climbed steadily since the 1960s with no sign of slowing.

By 2030, the United Nations projects São Paulo will have a population of over 23 million people, approximately 10 million more people than Rio.

Country
Brazil
Growth Rate
0.83%

Sao Paulo Population 2024

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Year
Population
Growth Rate
Growth
19502,334,038
19512,461,3335.45%127,295
19522,595,7605.46%134,427
19532,737,1295.45%141,369
19542,886,4085.45%149,279
19553,043,8285.45%157,420
19563,210,0695.46%166,241
19573,384,8945.45%174,825
19583,569,5015.45%184,607
19593,764,1765.45%194,675
19603,969,7595.46%205,583
19614,228,9706.53%259,211
19624,514,9306.76%285,960
19634,820,2276.76%305,297
19645,146,6326.77%326,405
19655,494,1506.75%347,518
19665,865,6616.76%371,511
19676,262,2946.76%396,633
19686,686,3496.77%424,055
19697,137,8336.75%451,484
19707,620,4906.76%482,657
19718,004,3355.04%383,845
19728,380,0674.69%375,732
19738,772,3324.68%392,265
19749,183,5364.69%411,204
19759,614,0164.69%430,480
197610,065,3094.69%451,293
197710,536,4574.68%471,148
197811,030,3554.69%493,898
197911,547,4054.69%517,050
198012,089,4544.69%542,049
198112,383,5282.43%294,074
198212,628,9571.98%245,429
198312,879,2501.98%250,293
198413,134,8581.98%255,608
198513,394,8151.98%259,957
198613,660,2871.98%265,472
198713,931,0201.98%270,733
198814,207,5021.98%276,482
198914,488,6891.98%281,187
199014,775,8401.98%287,151
199115,068,6811.98%292,841
199215,288,0361.46%219,355
199315,493,5441.34%205,508
199415,702,1051.35%208,561
199515,913,4731.35%211,368
199616,127,9831.35%214,510
199716,344,7821.34%216,799
199816,564,8021.35%220,020
199916,787,7821.35%222,980
200017,014,0781.35%226,296
200117,260,0291.45%245,951
200217,511,5061.46%251,477
200317,766,6461.46%255,140
200418,025,8641.46%259,218
200518,288,1341.45%262,270
200618,554,5911.46%266,457
200718,824,9291.46%270,338
200819,099,5871.46%274,658
200919,377,4801.45%277,893
201019,659,8081.46%282,328
201119,901,8751.23%242,067
201220,143,0931.21%241,218
201320,386,5591.21%243,466
201420,633,3091.21%246,750
201520,883,0461.21%249,737
201621,136,1551.21%253,109
201721,391,6241.21%255,469
201821,650,1811.21%258,557
201921,846,5070.91%196,326
202022,043,0280.9%196,521
202122,237,4720.88%194,444
202222,429,7990.86%192,327
202322,619,7360.85%189,937
202422,806,7040.83%186,968
202522,990,0070.8%183,303
202623,168,7460.78%178,739
202723,342,0910.75%173,345
202823,509,3620.72%167,271
202923,670,1800.68%160,818
203023,824,2230.65%154,043
203123,971,3430.62%147,120
203224,111,4450.58%140,102
203324,244,6210.55%133,176
203424,370,8360.52%126,215
203524,490,1360.49%119,300
showing: 86 rows

Sao Paulo Population Data (Urban Area)

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Other Cities in Brazil

  1. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - Sao Paolo data and statistics
  2. Portal Brazil - Brazil information and data

Sources