Map of Ceará

History

The territory of Ceará was originally inhabited by different Indian peoples, such as the Tabajara, Potyguara, Anacés, Kariri, Inhamum, Jucá, Kanindé, Tremembé, Paicaú and others, who had commercial relations with various European people, including the French, before the Portuguese decided to include the area in Brazil.

The first Portuguese plan for settling in Ceará dated from 1534, but the first attempts to settle the territory failed, and the earliest Portuguese settlement was made near the mouth of the Ceará River in 1603, by Pero Coelho de Sousa.

Geography

Ceará has an area of 148,016 square kilometres (57,149 sq mi). It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, on the south by Pernambuco state, and on the west by Piauí.

Ceará lies partly upon the northeast slope of the Brazilian Highlands, and partly upon the sandy coastal plain. Its surface is a succession of great terraces, facing north and northeast, formed by the denudation of the ancient sandstone plateau which once covered this part of the continent; the terraces are seamed by watercourses, and their valleys are broken by hills and ranges of highlands. The latter are the remains of the ancient plateau, capped with horizontal strata of sandstone, with a uniform altitude of 2,000 to 2,400 feet (610 to 730 m).

Economy

The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 73.28%, followed by the industrial sector at 20.49%. Agriculture represents 6.23% of GDP (2021). Ceará exports: cast iron, iron and steel (53,08%), shoes and similar artifacts (13,12%), fruits (7,66%), mineral fuels and derived products (3,81%), fish, crustaceans and other aquatic invertebrates (3,68%) (2023). It is one of only three Brazilian states which together produce the world's entire supply of carnauba wax.

According to the data from IPECE and IBGE, the GDP growth of the State of Ceará in 2021 was of 4.76%, while Brazil's overall GDP grew 4,76% as well in the same year.

Demographics

According to the 2022 IBGE census, there were 8.794.957 people residing in the state. The population density was 59.07 inhabitants/km2.

Urbanization: 76.9% (2022); Population growth: 0.38% (2024–2025); Houses: 2,181,000 (2006).

The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) census revealed the following numbers: 5,690,973 Pardos (Multiracial) people (64.7%), 2,456,214 White people (27.9%), 595,694 Black people (6.8%), 39,982 Amerindian people (0.5%), 11,256 Asian people (0.1%).

Religion is very important in the culture of Ceará, being an extremely important factor in the construction of the identity of the people. Catholicism is the hegemony religion in Ceará and is the Christian confession that left most marks in Ceara's culture.