João Pessoa has a population of 817,511, making it the 23rd largest place we list in Brazil. It is in Paraíba.
João Pessoa holds 0.38% of Brazil's 213,562,666 people. São Paulo, the largest place we list there, is 15 times its size. Twenty years earlier the World Gazetteer recorded 650,883, a rise of 26%.
The 2005 figure comes from the World Gazetteer archive restored on this site. The two sources may draw the settlement's boundary differently, so treat the change as indicative rather than exact. Why figures differ.
Nearby in size
| Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Duque de Caxias | Rio de Janeiro | 866,347 |
| Nova Iguaçu | Rio de Janeiro | 843,046 |
| São Bernardo do Campo | São Paulo | 840,499 |
| Sorocaba | São Paulo | 762,172 |
| Uberlândia | Minas Gerais | 754,954 |
| Osasco | São Paulo | 728,615 |
Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.