Explore Brazil in 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 Brasília (Capital)

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 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 country consists of 27 regions/states which are listed below.

Regions/States of Brazil

Brazilian Tourism Information

Official Tourism Office

Website: Brazil Tourism

Phone: +55 21 259 61 65
Fax: +55 21 511 25 92

Unesco World Heritage Properties

Brazil has 13 more world heritage locations. To see all of them, visit the Brazil Unesco Heritage location overview.

Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves

The Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves, in the states of Paraná and São Paulo, contain some of the best and most extensive examples of Atlantic forest in Brazil. The 25 protected...

Brasilia

Brasilia, a capital created ex nihilo in the centre of the country in 1956, was a landmark in the history of town planning. Urban planner Lucio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer intended that...

Brazilian Atlantic Islands: Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas Reserves

Peaks of the Southern Atlantic submarine ridge form the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago and Rocas Atoll off the coast of Brazil. They represent a large proportion of the island surface of the South...

Central Amazon Conservation Complex

The Central Amazon Conservation Complex makes up the largest protected area in the Amazon Basin (over 6 million hectares) and is one of the planet’s richest regions in terms of biodiversity....

Cerrado Protected Areas: Chapada dos Veadeiros and Emas National Parks

The two sites included in the designation contain flora and fauna and key habitats that characterize the Cerrado – one of the world’s oldest and most diverse tropical ecosystems. For...

Demographic Information

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.

Natural Population Growth

Population, Migration and Growth: The population in Brazil is growing at an rate of 1.17% (or by 2,346,876 citizens). Each year 18,099 people leave this country (or 0.10 per thousand citizens) - making it an emmigration country. This leads to an absolute natural increase rate of the population of 1.18%. Or an total increase of 2,364,975 citizens.

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.