BRAZIL

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is a country in South America. It is the fifth-largest country by geographical area, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. The official language is Portuguese.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,367 kilometers. Brazil borders every nation on the South American continent except Ecuador and Chile. Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the department of French Guiana are to the north, Colombia to the northwest, Bolivia and Peru to the west, Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest, and Uruguay to the south. Numerous archipelagos are part of the Brazilian territory.

Brazil is crossed by both the Equator and Tropic of Capricorn, and as such is home to a vast array fauna and flora, natural environments, as well as extensive natural resources.

MISSIONARIES:

Losnach, Natal & Sonia

HISTORY:

Brazil was a colony of Portugal from its discovery by Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500 until its independence in 1822. Initially independent as the Brazilian Empire, the country has been a republic since 1889, although the bicameral legislature (now called Congress) dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified. Its current Constitution defines Brazil as a Federative Republic. The Federation is formed by the indissoluble association of the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities. There are currently 26 States and 5,564 Municipalities.

Brazil is the world's 8th largest economy in terms of purchasing power and the 10th largest economy at market exchange rates. The country has a diversified middle-income economy with wide variations in development levels and mature manufacturing, mining and agriculture sectors. Technology and services also play an important role and are growing rapidly. Brazil is a net exporter, having gone through free trade and privatization reforms in the 1990s. In spite of important economical achievements, many social issues still hamper development.

RELIGION:

The most popular religion in Brazil is Roman Catholicism and the country has the largest Roman Catholic population in the world. Adepts of Protestantism are rising in number. Until 1970, the majority of Brazilian Protestants were members of "traditional churches", mostly Lutherans, Presbyterians and Baptists. Since then, numbers of Pentecostal and Neopentecostal members have increased significantly. Although Islam was first practiced by African slaves, the Muslim population of Brazil is comprised mostly by Arab immigrants. However, a new trend has been the increase in conversions to Islam among non-Arab citizens. Only 27,000 Muslims live in Brazil as of 2000. The largest population of Buddhists in Latin America lives in Brazil, mostly because the country has the largest Japanese population outside Japan.

The latest IBGE census presents the following numbers: 74% of the population is Roman Catholic (about 139 million); 15.4% is Protestant (about 28 million), including Jehovah's Witnesses (1,100,000) and the Latter-day Saints (600,000); 7.4% considers itself agnostics or atheists or without a religion (about 12 million); 1.3% follows Spiritism (about 2.2 million); 0.3% follows African traditional religions such as Candomble and Umbanda and 1.7% are members of other religions. Some of these are Buddhists (215,000), Jews (150,000), Islamic (27,000) and some practice a mixture of different religions.