Name: Brasil (brah-zeew)
Population: 203,429,773 (July 2011 est)
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: $10,800 (2010 est)
GDP per sector: services (67.4%), industry (26.8%), agriculture (5.8%) (2010 est)
Unemployment rate: 5.2% (November 2011)
Population below the poverty line: 26% (2008)
Literacy Rate: 88.6%
Population Growth Rate: 1.134% (2011)
Infant Mortality Rate: 21.17 deaths/100,000 live births (2011)
Total fertility rate: 2.18 children born/woman (2011)
Natural hazards: drought in the Northeast, floods, and occasional frost in the South
Source: CIA World Factbook
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