A Brazilian Canadian (Portuguese: canadense de extração brasileira, French: brésilien-canadien) is a Canadian of Brazilian descent or a Brazilian who has immigrated to Canada. The 1991 Canadian census reports 2,520 individuals of wholly Brazilian origin and another 2,325 who describe Brazilian as one of their ethnic origins (Brazilians themselves may be of varied European, African, Middle Eastern, East Asian and Amerindian ethnic origins), giving a total of 4,845. This figure can be taken as an official minimum and corresponds to Brazilian consular estimates.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s a large number of younger Brazilians established families in Toronto. The local newspaper Abacaxi Times estimated that the total number of Brazilians living in Toronto in the 1990s was about 9,000. Probably an equal number of legal immigrants entered Ontario to that date. The total for Canada was 14,976. When refugee claimants and illegal immigrants are added, the total in Ontario alone may approach 12,000, with a few thousand more in Quebec and British Columbia; there are smaller groups scattered across the country. New immigrants have continued to enter the country, but at a much slower pace than in the previous decade.
^2011 National Household Survey: Data tables | Citizenship (5), Place of Birth (236), Immigrant Status and Period of Immigration (11), Age Groups (10) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2011 National Household Survey
^[1], Facts and figures 2011 — Immigration overview: Permanent and temporary residents — Permanent residents
