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Brazil in brief

The Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil) is the largest and most populous country in Latin America, and fifth largest in the world. Brasilia is the capital of the country.

1. Geography

With an area of 8,514,215.3 km², Brazil is the 5th largest country of the world after Russia, Canada, United States and China.

Time: GMT - 3 in Brasilia, São Paulo and Rio.

2. Cimate

As most of Brazil is situated between the equator which passes through the north of the country and the Tropic of Capricorn which passes near São Paulo, Brazil's climate is predominantly tropical. The country is in the southern hemisphere, where the seasons are the reverse of those in Europe. The south is more temperate and occasionally experiences frost and snow.

In Brazil, temperatures of more than 32°C (90°F) are in fact rare. The annual average temperature in the region is 22-26°C (72-79°F). The hottest part of Brazil is the northeast, where temperatures of more than 38°C (100°F) are frequently recorded during the dry season between May and November. Along the Atlantic coast from Recife to Rio de Janeiro, average temperatures range from 23 to 27°C (73-81°F).

Brazil's most intense rain falls around the mouth of the Amazon near the city of Belémr. Most of Brazil has moderate rainfall of between 1,000 and 1,500 millimetres (39 to 59 inches) a year, most of it coming between December and April. The driest part of the country is the northeast, where rainfall is irregular and the evaporation rate very high, making it difficult to grow crops.

3. Political organization

The country is divided in 26 states plus the Federal District (DF) of Brasilia which its capital. These states are organized into 5 distinctive regions: North, Northeast, Center-West, Southeast and South.

North: Acre (AC), Amapá (AP), Amazonas (AM), Pará (PA) , Rondônia (RO), Roraima (RR) and Tocantins(TO).
Northeast: Alagoas (AL), Bahia (BA), Ceará (CE), Maranhão (MA), Paraíba (PB), Pernambuco (PE), Piauí (PI), Rio Grande do Norte (RN) and Sergipe (SE).
Central-West: Goiás (GO), Mato Grosso (MT), Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) and Federal District (DF).
Southeast: Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Espírito Santo (ES), Minas Gerais (MG) and São Paulo (SP).
South: Paraná (PR), Santa Catarina (SC) and Rio Grande do Sul (RS).

The southeast region ("sudeste") is the most developped and industrialized region and is the region where the main cities of the countries are located: São Paulo (11 million inhabitants) and Rio de Janeiro (6 million inhabitants).

Main Ports:
Belem, Fortaleza, Ilheus, Imbituba, Manaus, Paranagua, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande, Salvador, Santos, Vitoria.

Download the political map of Brazil

4. Population

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in 2006, the population of Brazil represents around 186 millions. The population is young: 47% of population was under 25 years in 2003 (IBGE).

Brazil is a racially mixed country in which the majority of people have ancestors in more than one of the three main groups: white Europeans (mostly Portuguese); black Africans (mainly from the west of the continent); and the original indigenous Indian population. In the first half of the 20th century, as a consequence of wars and economic crisis in Europe, significant contingents of immigrants came to Brazil from various European countries (mostly from Portugal, Italy and Spain) and Japan. Today Brazil contains the largest number of Japanese outside Japan, most of whom live in São Paulo state or the south of the country.

Brazil has a white majority and a very large number of mixed race people. According to the IBGE (2003) Brazilian population is as follows:
- white 52.1%
- mixed race 41.4%
- black 5.9%
- amerindian 0.6%

5. Language

As a former Portuguese colony, the Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. Several Indian tribes living in remote reservations speak also other indian languages, howether, Portuguese is the only language of daily life.

6. Religion

About 74% of the population in Brazil is Roman Catholic.

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