Name: Brasil (brah-zeew)
Population: approximately 190,000,000 people
Size: 8,511,965 square kilometers (aprox. the size of the continental United States)
Borders: Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname
Climate: mostly tropical, but temperate in the southern regions
Official Language: Portuguese
Religions: Catholic (73%), Protestant (15%), Spiritualist (1%), Candomble/Umbanda, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim
Ethnic Groups: White (53.7%), mulatto (38.5%), black (6.2%), other (Amerindian, Japanese, Arab - 0.9%), not specified (0.7%) --2000 census
Currency: the real (approximately 2 reais to the US dollar)
Capital: Brasilia
Government: Federal republic divided into 26 states; Presidential system
Time Zones: Four
Independence: September 7, 1822 from Portugal
GDP per capita: $8,800 (2006 est)
GDP per sector: services (66%), industry (14%), agriculture (20%)
Unemployment rate: 9.6% (2006 est)
Population below the poverty line: 31% (2005)
Literacy Rate: 88.6%
Population Growth Rate: 1.008% (2007)
Infant Mortality Rate: 27.62 deaths/100,000 live births
Total fertility rate: 1.88 children born/woman (2007 est)
Natural hazards: drought in the Northeast, floods, and occasional frost in the South
Source: CIA World Factbook
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