I knew that Brazil was big but I had no idea just how big! It started to dawn on me when I looked at booking some internal flights and realised that it took days to get anywhere – although that is also a slight reflection on the lack of a comprehensive national flight network. Still, Brazil really is vast and holds many records when it comes to size. Here are my top 5 amazing, size-related facts.
- Brazil is the largest country in both South and Latin America and 5th largest in the world – with an area of 8,515,767.049 km2 and a population of around 206 million people, the majority of which live by the coast. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent’s land area.
- It is also the largest country in the world to have Portuguese as the official language
- Brazil is the only country in the world that has both the equator and the Tropic of Cancer running through it.
- Another indication of its size, Brazil spans 4 time zones, with only part of the country observing daylight saving time, just to add to the confusion!
- Brazil’s economy is the world’s seventh-largest by GDP (PPP) as of 2015. As one of the world’s major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years.
