About my country, Brazil

outubro 30, 2005

About my country, Brazil

( World map )

( Brazil regions and states )

Culture

Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, sixth most spoken language in the world. More than French, German, Italian or Japanese. Education is free and compulsory, and 83 percent of adults can read. The government provides support for higher education. Brazil is known for its music, which fuses African and Portuguese elements. The samba and the bossa nova originated in Brazil. The country also has a rich literature (see A little about Brazilian Literature).

Language:

the official language is Portuguese; however, the accent and the intonation are very different from what one hears in Portugal and other former Portuguese colonies;

some people say that Brazilians speak “Brazilian”, just like Americans can say they speak “American”, and not English. And there are also many Brazilians who are descendants of immigrants and who speak German and Italian, especially in cities in southern Brazil.

Climate and Temperature in Brazil:

mostly tropical, but temperate in south;

Brazil’s climatic typology is very diverse. The huge territorial expanse, allied with factors such as temperature, altitude, barometric pressure and proximity to the ocean, provide the country with climatic conditions that can please everyone. It is one of the richest and most complex ecosystems in the world, with extremely diversified vegetation and sceneries;

the Brazilian territory is divided into climatic strips: 92% of the territory is located between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. We can therefore say that the Brazilian climate is predominantly tropical, with equatorial and subtropical (temperate zones) strips distributed over the remaining 8% of the nation’s territory. The predominance of lower altitudes throughout the country provides more elevated temperatures, with averages exceeding 20°C;

the seasons are the exact opposite of those in Europe and the United States, except in the northern region of the country. The average annual temperature is approximately 28ºC in the northern region and 20ºC, in the south;

extreme temperatures are rare, but they may occur: in the winter, some cities in the south of the country experience negative temperatures, with frost and snow. And in Rio de Janeiro, in the peak of summer, the temperature may hit 40ºC.

Foreign Exchange and Currency:

the currency used in Brazil is called the Real (R$) and the foreign exchange rate is published daily in the newspapers and other specialized sites. Foreign exchange can be handled in banks, travel agencies and authorized hotels. Travelers’ checks as well as currencies are easily exchanged at these locations. International credit cards are accepted at most hotels, restaurants, stores, travel agencies, car rental companies and other companies that render services to tourists. A floating exchange rate is used;

the Brazilian currency has remained reasonably stable. From November 2003 to April 2004, the American dollar maintained an average exchange rate of R$ 2,90, according to data from the Brazilian Central Bank.

Basic Indicators

History:

Discovered by the Portuguese in 1500 AD.

Named for Brazil wood (Pau Brasil) used for lumber.

Became Monarchy, independent from Portugal in 1822.

Current president is Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (since January of 2003).

Regimen and Form of Government: Presidential Republic.

Capital: Brasilia (Federal District).

Currency: Real.

National Date: Independence Day, September 7^th.

Nationality:

noun: Brazilian(s)

adjective: Brazilian

Ethnic groups: white (includes Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish) 55%, mixed white and black 38%, black 6%, other (includes Japanese, Arab, Amerindian) 1%

Religions: Roman Catholic (nominal) 70%

Cities: São Paulo, 18 million people (3rd largest).

Rio de Janeiro, 12 million people (10th largest).

Brasília, 1 million, Capital founded in 1960.

National population density: 45 inhabitants per square mile.

Density in Amazon region: less than 2 inhabitants per square mile

States: 26 states, distributed among 5 geographic regions:

North, Northeast, Central-west, Southwest, and South.

Location: Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Map references: South Americ

Geographic coordinates: 10 00 S, 55 00 W

Environment-international agreements:

party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America

Area:

total: 8,511,965 sq km (3,3000,000 square miles).
land: 8,456,510 sq km
water: 55,455 sq km

note: includes Arquipélago de Fernando de Noronha, Atol das Rocas, Ilha da Trindade, Ilhas Martin Vaz, and Penedos de São Pedro e São Paulo
Area-comparative: slightly smaller than the US Land boundaries (total: 14,691 km)

Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

Terrain: mostly flat to rolling lowlands in north; some plains, hills, mountains, and narrow coastal belt

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
highest point: Pico da Neblina 3,014 m

Natural resources: bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum, tin, uranium, petroleum, hydropower, timber Land use:

arable land: 5%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 22%
forests and woodland: 58%
other: 14% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 28,000 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: recurring droughts in northeast; floods and occasional frost in south Environment-current issues: deforestation in Amazon Basin destroys the habitat and endangers the existence of a multitude of plant and animal species indigenous to the area; air and water pollution in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and several other large cities; land degradation and water pollution caused by improper mining activities.

it is the fifth largest country in the world after Canada, the Russian Federation, China and the United States (about the same area as Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Ecuador combined). Except for a small number of islands, Brazil is a single and continuous land mass;

the Equator passes through the northern region, near Macapá, and the Tropic of Capricorn cuts through the south of the country, near São Paulo;

Brazil’s east to west extension (4,319.4 km) is almost equivalent to its north to south distance (4,394.7 km);

the country borders French Guiana, Suriname, Guiana, Venezuela and Colombia, to the north; Uruguay and Argentina, to the south; and Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru, to the west. Ecuador and Chile are the only two countries on the South American continent that do not border Brazil. The Atlantic Ocean extends along the country’s entire eastern coast, providing 7,367 km of coastline.

Brazil – a country that greets visitors with a huge smile

People

A mixture of people from many countries:

Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Africans and native Indians.

Population: 169,806,557 (July 1998 est.). The sixth largest in the world.About the same as Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela.

Note: Brazil took a census in August 1996 which showed a total of 157,079,573; this figure is about 5% lower than projections by the US Census Bureau, which is close to the implied underenumeration of 4.6% for 1991; since the full results of the census have not been released for analysis, the numbers shown for Brazil do not take into consideration the results of this 1996 census.

Age structure:
0-14 years: 30% (male 26,090,859; female 25,132,122)
15-64 years: 65% (male 54,199,642; female 55,769,122)
65 years and over: 5% (male 3,499,272; female 5,115,540) (July 1998 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.24% (1998 est.)
Birth rate: 20.92 births/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Death rate: 8.53 deaths/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1998 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female (1998 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 36.96 deaths/1,000 live births (1998 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.36 years
male: 59.39 years
female: 69.59 years (1998 est.)
Total fertility rate: 2.33 children born/woman (1998 est.)

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 83.3%
male: 83.3%
female: 83.3% (1995 est.)

the mix of races has made Brazil a culturally rich and at the same time unique country. This miscegenation began with the Indian, the African and the Portuguese, but in a short time, immigrants from around the world began to arrive: Europeans, Asians, Jews and Arabs;

the result was a happy people, open to everything new, a people only found in Brazil. Because of this tremendous diversity, Brazil is one of the last places on earth where no one is a foreigner, where one can change one’s destiny without losing one’s identity and where each and every Brazilian has a little of the entire world in his or her blood;

this may be the reason the Brazilian receives anyone from another land so well. According to surveys carried out with foreign tourists who visited the country, 97.2% intend to return soon; 56.5% had their expectations completely satisfied; and, for 31.7%, their expectations were completely exceeded. As you can see, those who come to Brazil become fans on the first visit. Find out more about Brazil by navigating through our site. Or better yet: visit the country in person and feel for yourself the happiness and enthusiasm of our people.

Brazilian democracy Brazil has been a republic since 1889

throughout this entire period, the country actually lived little more than thirty years of democracy (1946-1964 and from 1985 to the present). Nevertheless, it is one of the most democratic nations on earth. Brazilian democracy, which was won back after 21 years of a military dictatorship, proved to be vigorous and became an important part of the life of its people;

the National Congress has been operating like clockwork for 175 years. In the entire history of the country, only on three occasions did the elected representatives not complete their terms. The strength of the Congress is actually so great that not even the military dictatorship of the 1960s could do without it;

there have been national elections in Brazil since 1823. And these elections have been open to voters in a manner almost unheard of even for European democracy standards.