The national IBGE census has not questioned the ancestry of the Brazilian people for several decades, considering that immigration to Brazil declined almost to 0 in the second half of the 20th century.

In the last census questioning ancestry, in 1940, 107,074 Brazilians said they were the children of a Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi or Arab father.

According to a 2008 IBGE survey, 0.9% of the white Brazilians interviewed said they had a family background in Western Asia, which would give about one million people.

[5][6][7] According to a research conducted by IBGE in 2008, covering only the states of Amazonas, Paraíba, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso, and Distrito Federal, 0.9% of white Brazilian respondents said they had family origins in the Middle East.

The Arab-Brazil Chamber of Commerce released a census, according to which they estimated the number of descendants living in Brazil at around 12 million.

[13][12] Two of the major centres of Arabic diasporic culture were in Brasil including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In big towns of Brazil it is easy to find restaurants of Lebanese food, and dishes, such as sfiha ("esfiha"), hummus, kibbeh ("quibe"), tahina, tabbouleh ("tabule") and halwa are very well known among Brazilians.

A former mayor of Sao Paulo and Brazil's current Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, is also of Lebanese descent.