Curitiba (Tupi: "Pine Nut Land", Brazilian Portuguese: [kuɾiˈtʃibɐ])[4] is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. The city's population numbered approximately 1,879,355 people as of 2015, making it the eighth most populous city in the country, and the largest in Brazil's South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area comprises 26 municipalities[5] with a total population of over 3.2 million (IBGE estimate in 2010),[6] making it the seventh most populous in the country.

​

Curitiba is an important cultural, political, and economic centre in Latin America.[7] The city sits on a plateau at 932 metres (3,058 ft) above sea level. It is located 105 kilometres (65 mi) west of the seaport of Paranaguá and is served by the Afonso Pena International and Bacacheri airports. The city hosts the Federal University of Paraná, established in 1912.

 

In the 1700s, Curitiba possessed a favorable location between cattle-breeding country and marketplaces, leading to a successful cattle trade and the city's first major expansion. Later, between 1850 and 1950, it grew due to logging and agricultural expansion in the Paraná State (first Araucaria logging, later mate and coffee cultivation and in the 1970s wheat, corn and soybean cultivation). In the 1850s, waves of European immigrants arrived in Curitiba, mainly Germans, Italians, Poles and Ukrainians, contributing to the city's economic and cultural development.[8] Nowadays, only smaller numbers of foreign immigrants arrive, primarily from Middle Eastern[9] and other South American countries.