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Alternate titles: Brasil, Federative Republic of Brazil, República Federativa do Brasil

By

Richard P. Momsen

See All

Last Updated:

Oct 10, 2022

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Audio File:
National anthem of Brazil

Head Of State And Government:

President: Jair Bolsonaro

... (Show more)

Capital:

Brasília

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Population:

(2022 est.) 214,891,000

... (Show more)

Currency Exchange Rate:

1 USD equals 5.291 Brazilian real

... (Show more)

Form Of Government:

multiparty federal republic with two legislative houses (Federal Senate [81]; Chamber of Deputies [513])

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Oct. 3, 2022, 10:06 AM ET - Former president and leftist icon Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva won a narrow victory over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the first round of voting in Brazil’s presidential election October 2, but because neither candidate captured more than 50 percent of the vote, they will meet again in a runoff on October 30. Lula claimed 48.4 percent of the vote, compared with 43.2 percent for Bolsonaro. The remainder was divided between nine other candidates.
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Brazil , officially Federative Republic of Brazil , Portuguese República Federativa do Brasil , country of South America that occupies half the continent’s landmass. It is the fifth largest country in the world, exceeded in size only by Russia , Canada , China , and the United States , though its area is greater than that of the 48 conterminous U.S. states. Brazil faces the Atlantic Ocean along 4,600 miles (7,400 km) of coastline and shares more than 9,750 miles (15,700 km) of inland borders with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador—specifically, Uruguay to the south; Argentina , Paraguay , and Bolivia to the southwest; Peru to the west; Colombia to the northwest; and Venezuela , Guyana , Suriname , and French Guiana to the north. Brazil stretches roughly 2,700 miles (4,350 km) from north to south and from east to west to form a vast irregular triangle that encompasses a wide range of tropical and subtropical landscapes, including wetlands, savannas, plateaus, and low mountains. Brazil contains most of the Amazon River basin, which has the world’s largest river system and the world’s most-extensive virgin rainforest . The country contains no desert, high-mountain, or arctic environments .
Brazil is the fifth most-populous country on Earth and accounts for one-third of Latin America’s population. Most of the inhabitants of Brazil are concentrated along the eastern seaboard, although its capital, Brasília , is located far inland and increasing numbers of migrants are moving to the interior. Rio de Janeiro, in the eyes of many of the world, continues to be the preeminent icon of Brazil. The nation’s burgeoning cities, huge hydroelectric and industrial complexes, mines, and fertile farmlands make it one of the world’s major economies. However, Brazil struggles with extreme social inequalities, environmental degradation , intermittent financial crises, and a sometimes deadlocked political system .
Brazil is unique in the Americas because, following independence from Portugal , it did not fragment into separate countries as did British and Spanish possessions in the region; rather, it retained its identity through the intervening centuries and a variety of forms of government. Because of that hegemony , the Portuguese language is universal except among Brazil’s native Indians, especially those in the more-remote reaches of the Amazon basin. At the turn of the 21st century, Brazilians marked the 500th anniversary of Portuguese contact with a mixture of public celebration and deprecation.
The Brazilian landscape is immense and complex, with interspersed rivers, wetlands, mountains, and plateaus adjoining other major features and traversing the boundaries of states and regions.
The Brazilian government has grouped the country’s states into five large geographic and statistical units called the Major Regions (Grandes Regiões): North (Norte), Northeast (Nordeste), Central-West (Centro-Oeste), Southeast (Sudeste), and South (Sul). The tropical North—comprising the states of Acre , Rondônia , Amazonas , Pará , Tocantins , Roraima , and Amapá —covers more than two-fifths of Brazilian territory and includes the largest portion of Amazon rainforest and parts of the Guiana and Brazilian highlands; however, the region accounts for a limited proportion of the nation’s population and economic output.
The Northeast, which experiences some of the nation’s driest and hottest conditions, has nearly one-fifth of Brazil’s land area and more than one-fourth of the population. It contains the states of Maranhão , Piauí , Ceará , Rio Grande do Norte , Paraíba , Alagoas , Sergipe , Bahia , and Pernambuco , the latter including the island of Fernando de Noronha , some 225 miles (360 km) off the Atlantic coast. The region’s oldest cities date from the 16th century, when the Portuguese first established sugarcane plantations there. The Northeast accounts for one-fifth of the nation’s agricultural production, but the industrial and service sectors lag far behind those of the Southeast and South, and the unemployment rate remains high.
The Southeast covers only one-tenth of Brazil’s territory but has two-fifths of its population and the greatest concentration of industrial and agricultural production in the nation. The region includes São Paulo state, which is the nation’s economic and demographic heartland, landlocked Minas Gerais , whose very name (meaning “Extensive Mines”) testifies to great mineral wealth, and the populous coastal states of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro . The city of Rio de Janeiro , the national capital from 1763 to 1960, remains Brazil’s main cultural and tourist centre.
The South, which stretches below the Tropic of Capricorn , includes the states of Paraná , Santa Catarina , and Rio Grande do Sul . It occupies an area nearly as large as the isle of Britain but is the smallest of Brazil’s regions. Its diversified economy includes strong manufacturing , agriculture, and service sectors. The South has about one-seventh of the nation’s population, including many people of European ancestry, particularly from Germany and Italy . The South’s tourist trade partly depends on the spectacular Iguaçu Falls , at the Argentine border.
The Central-West consists of the states of Goiás , Mato Grosso , and Mato Grosso do Sul , as well as the Federal District, in which Brasília is located. The region covers roughly one-fourth of Brazil, including forested valleys, semiarid highlands, and vast wetlands. A small proportion of the nation’s population lives there, but an increasing number of settlers have been moving into the region and extending its agricultural frontiers.
Brazil is a predominantly tropical country famous for its extensive Amazon lowlands; however, highlands cover most of the national territory. Brazil’s physical features can be grouped into five main physiographic divisions: the Guiana Highlands in the North, the Amazon lowlands, the Pantanal in the Central-West, the Brazilian Highlands (including the extensive coastal ranges), and the coastal lowlands.
Brazil shares the rugged Guiana Highlands with Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Forested mesas and mountain ranges, scenic waterfalls, and white-water rivers characterize the area. The highest point in Brazil is Neblina Peak , which reaches 9,888 feet (3,014 metres) along the Venezuelan border in the Serra do Imeri. The Serra da Pacaraima, farther east, rises to 9,094 feet (2,772 metres) at Mount Roraima , where the borders of Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil meet. The less rugged Acaraí and Tumuc-Humac (Tumucumaque) ranges border on the Guianas.
The Amazon lowlands are widest along the eastern base of the Andes. They narrow toward the east until, downstream of Manaus , only a narrow ribbon of annually flooded plains ( várzeas ) separates the Guiana Highlands to the north from the Brazilian Highlands to the south. The várzeas fan out again as the watercourse approaches the Atlantic, but no delta extends into the ocean. The basin’s most widespread topographical features are gently undulating hills called terra firme (“solid ground”), composed of layers of alluvial soil that were deposited as much as 2.5 million years ago and subsequently uplifted to positions above flood level. Shallow oxbow lakes and wetlands are found throughout the region.
The immense Pantanal, an extension of the Gran Chaco plain, is a region of swamps and marshes in northwestern Mato Grosso do Sul and southern Mato Grosso states and, to a lesser extent, in northern Paraguay and eastern Bolivia; it is one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the world, covering some 54,000 square miles (140,000 square km). The Pantanal is dissected by the effluents of the upper Paraguay River , which overflows its banks during the rainy season, inundating all but the tops of scattered levees and low hills. (See also Drainage .)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 14 October 2022 .
"Brazilian Republic" redirects here. For other uses, see Brazil (disambiguation) and Brazilian Republic (disambiguation) .
República Federativa do Brasil ( Portuguese )
Selo Nacional do Brasil National Seal of Brazil
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Brazilian history .
Construction of the building of National Congress of Brazil in Brasília , the new capital, 1959
The majority of Amazon rainforest , the most biodiverse rainforest in the world, is contained within Brazil , with 60% of the forest.
Female pantanal jaguar in Piquirí River , Mato Grosso . Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland area.
Annually, Brazil's tropical old-growth forest loss greatly exceeds that of other world nations. [191]
Cumulatively, Brazil has the highest percentage of deforested or highly degraded rainforest of any Amazonia nation. [192]
A proportional representation of Brazil exports, 2019
São Paulo , the largest financial centre in Brazil
The KC-390 , developed by Embraer , the third largest producer of civil aircraft , after Boeing and Airbus . [251]
BR-116 in Guapimirim , Rio de Janeiro , the longest highway in the country, with 4,385 km (2,725 mi) of extension. [319]
The Itaipu Dam on the Paraná River , the second largest of the world. Brazilian energy matrix is one of the cleanest in the world.
Wind farm in Parnaíba , Piauí . Brazil is one of the 5 largest producers of wind energy in the world

^ includes Arab Brazilian , Jewish Brazilian , and Romani Brazilian

^ includes Caboclo , Mulatto , and Zambo

^ The Brazilian census uses the term amarela (or yellow in English) as a racial category to describe people of East Asian background. This category therefore excludes those of other Asian origins, such as West Asians/Arabs and South Asians

^ Exército Brasileiro. "Hino à Bandeira Nacional" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 22 February 2014 . Retrieved 29 January 2014 .

^ Jump up to: a b c IBGE – Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics). 2010 Census . Retrieved 7 August 2012.

^ "2010 Population Census – General characteristics of population, religion and persons with disabilities (Portuguese)" . ibge.gov.br (in Portuguese). 16 November 2012. Archived from the original on 16 November 2012 . Retrieved 10 August 2019 .

^ "2010 Population Census – General characteristics of population, religion and persons with disabilities (Portuguese)" . ibge.gov.br (in Portuguese). 16 November 2012. Archived from the original on 16 November 2012 . Retrieved 10 August 2019 .

^ "Brazil" . The World Factbook (2022 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency . Retrieved 24 September 2022 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2021" . Imf . International Monetary Fund . Retrieved 28 February 2022 .

^ "GINI index (World Bank estimate) – Brazil" . World Bank . Retrieved 8 April 2021 .

^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF) . United Nations Development Programme . 8 September 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022 . Retrieved 8 September 2022 .

^ José María Bello (1966). A History of Modern Brazil: 1889–1964 . Stanford University Press . p. 56 . ISBN 978-0-8047-0238-6 .

^ "Área Territorial Brasileira" [Brazilian Territorial Area] (in Portuguese). Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012 . Retrieved 4 May 2018 . Para a superfície do Brasil foi obtido o valor de 8.515.759,090 km2, publicado no DOU nº 124 de 30/06/2017, conforme Resolução Nº 02, de 29 de junho de 2017.

^ Philander, S. George (2012). Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change, Second Edition . Vol. 1 (Second ed.). Los Angeles: Princeton University. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-4129-9261-9 . OCLC 970592418 .

^ Vallance, Monique M. (2012). "Preface and Observations on Contemporary Brazil" . In Crocitti, John J. (ed.). Brazil Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic . Contributing editor Monique M. Vallance. ABC-CLIO. p. xxiii. ISBN 978-0-313-34672-9 . OCLC 787850982 .

^ "Os migrantes de hoje" . BBC Brasil . Retrieved 24 October 2018 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "Brazil § geography" . The World Factbook (2022 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency . Retrieved 4 May 2018 . (Archived 2018 edition)

^ "Brazil – Land" . Permanent Missions . United Nations. Geography. Archived from the original on 23 October 2014.

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Brazilian Federal Constitution" (in Portuguese). Presidency of the Republic. 1988. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007 . Retrieved 3 June 2008 . "Brazilian Federal Constitution" . v-brazil.com. 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2018 . Retrieved 3 June 2008 . Unofficial translate

^ "UNESCO World Heritage Centre — World Heritage List" . UNESCO . Retrieved 25 May 2012 .

^ M. Schaefer; J. Poffenbarger (2014). The Formation of the BRICS and its Implication for the United States: Emerging Together . Springer. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-137-38794-3 .

^ Sean W. Burges (2016). Latin America and the Shifting Sands of Globalization . Routledge. pp. 114–15. ISBN 978-1-31
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