20 amazing facts about Brazil you didn't know
Number 1. Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world.
Number 2. Brazil has the 2nd highest number of airports in the world, after the U.S.
Number 3. Sex change surgeries are free under Brazil's public health system since 2008.
Number 4. Brazil occupies 47.3% of South America and borders all other countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Number 5. Brazil is defined as a "federal republic" composed of the Federal District, 26 states, and 5,570 municipalities.
Number 6. Brazil's economy is the world's 7th-largest by GDP as of 2015.
Number 7. The Macaw is the national animal of Brazil.
Number 8. Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years.
Number 9. 92% of all new sold cars in Brazil use ethanol as fuel, which is produced from sugar cane.
Number 10. Brazil was the world's first country to ban tanning beds.
Number 11. 35% of men from rural Brazil have had sex with an animal, a study found.
Number 12. Apple's iPhone is almost twice more expensive in Brazil than in the U.S.
Number 13. Brazil's Capital, Brasilia, looks like an aeroplane from above.
Number 14. Brazil once tried to sell an aircraft carrier on eBay.
Number 15. Rio de Janeiro was once the capital of Portugal,
Number 16. Making it the only European capital outside of Europe.
Number 17. Rio de Janeiro means "January River" and it was called that by mistake. A Portuguese explorer thought the bay was the mouth of a river.
Number 18. The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be the first time a South American country has the right to host them.
Number 19. There's an underground river 4 KM (2.4 mi) beneath the Amazon River in Brazil, that might be as long, but hundreds of times wider.
Number 20. There's a colony in Brazil founded by 2,000 to 4,000 Confederate refugees who left the U.S. after losing the Civil War.
Bonus fact:
Number 21. About 4 million slaves were taken from Africa to Brazil, about 40% of all in the Americas.
