Brazilians

Brazilians are considered to be the citizens of Brazil. Also considered a Brazilian is a person born overseas to a Brazilian parent or legal guardian, as well as a person who has earned citizenship in the country. A multi-ethnic society indicates that individuals from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds live in Brazil, and there is no association between one's ethnic heritage and one's Brazilian identity.

Being Brazilian is more of a civic phenomena than an ethnic one. As a consequence, the degree to which Brazilian individuals connect with their ancestral roots varies substantially depending on the person, the location of the nation, and the exact ethnic origins in issue. In most cases, however, the concept of ethnicity as understood in the anglophone world is not widely accepted in the nation.

During the period following the Portuguese colonisation of the Brazilian territory, which lasted for much of the 16th century, the term "Brazilian" was applied exclusively to the Portuguese merchants of Brazilwood, as the inhabitants of the land were, for the most part, indigenous or Portuguese born in Portugal or in the territory now known as Brazil.

However, long before Brazil's independence from Portugal in 1822, it was already common in both Brazil and Portugal to refer to a Brazilian gentile as a person who was either a resident or whose family was a resident of the State of Brazil (1530–1815), which was a part of the Portuguese Empire at the time. During the reign of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves (1815–1822), there was some misunderstanding over the name.