Brazil Country Info - South America

Description and Basic Information

Brazil with its capital Brasília is located in South America (Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean). It covers some 8,511,966 square kilometres (slightly smaller than the US) with 191,908,000 citizens. Portuguese, Spanish, English and French are the official languages spoken in Brazil (consider regional differences). Suriname, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, Guyana, Paraguay, French Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina are bordering countries.

Brazil is the largest country in South America. Famous for its football (soccer) tradition and its annual Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife and Olinda. Owing to Brazil’s continental dimensions, varied geography, history and people, the country’s culture is rich and diverse. Music plays an important part in Brazilian identity. Styles like choro, samba and bossa nova are considered genuinely Brazilian. Brazil has many exciting cities, ranging from pretty colonial towns and coastal hideouts to hectic, lively metropolises. Brazil is a huge country with different climate zones. In the north, near the equator there is a wet and a dry season; from about Sao Paulo down to the south there is spring/summer/fall/winter. Brazil is one of a few countries that uses both 120 and 240 volts for everyday appliances. Expect the voltage to change back and forth as you travel from one place to the next -- even within the same Brazilian state, sometimes even within the same building. There is no physical difference in the electric outlets (power mains) for the two voltages.

Pictures from Capital (Brasília)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Brazil

The topography features mostly flat to rolling lowlands in north with some plains, hills, mountains, and narrow coastal belt. The average density of population is about 22 per km². The climate in Brazil can be described as mostly tropical, but temperate in south. Potential natural disasters are recurring droughts in northeast or floods and occasional frost in south.

To reach someone in Brazil dial +55 prior to a number. There are 41,497,000 installed telephones. And there are 173,959,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900, 1800 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".br". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 110/220V - 60Hz. The following list are the 27 regions/states in Brazil we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Brazilian population grew at a rate of 1.17% (or by 2,346,876 citizens). With 1,277,006 deaths and 3,641,981 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.18%. -18,099 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Brazil: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.