ted States Central Intelligence Agency, 2001).
Brazil's population as of July 2000 was estimated to be 171 million persons. Almost 80 percent of Brazil's population resides in urban areas. The rate of population growth in Brazil approximates 1.5 percent. Population density is 18.2 persons per square kilometer (The World Bank, 2001).
Ethnically, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, German, African, and indigenous (Indians) peoples are represented in Brazil's population. Whites, primarily Portuguese, account for 58 percent of the population, while the Mulattos, the products whites and Black unions, account for 38 percent of the country's population, Blacks account for six-percent of the population, and Indians account for one-percent of the population (United States Central Intelligence Agency, 2001).
Brazil has a well-educated work force. Approximately 38 percent of the population completes secondary school, and 9.5 percent complete postsecondary work (The World Bank, 2001).
Brazil is a republic. The executive branch of government tends to be the dominant branch. The government of the country is based on a federal system, wherein the states have significant autonomy. While Brazil has some military involvement in its government in its past history, the country does not have the typical Latin American experience of almost continual political upheavals.
Brazil's economy retains an essentially capitalist, free-market orientation. The nation's strong public sector is committed to liberalized trade and investment relations with other countries. The government depends to a great extent on entrepreneurial efforts and private capital (both foreign and domestic) as the sources of economic growth and limits its domestic role to coordinating fiscal and monetary policy, providing for infrastructure development, and promoting investment and industrial development (Altimir, 1999).
Brazil is classified by the World Bank (2001) as ...