Rio De Janeiro Brazil

Description: Rio de Janeiro or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the sixth-most-populous city in the Americas.

Population: 6,748,000

Demographics: The 2022 census revealed the following numbers: White Brazilian (45.4% or 2,821,619); Mixed (38.7% or 2,403,895); Black (15.6% or 968,428); Asian (10,514 or 0.2%); Indigenous (6,531 or 0.1%). The population of Rio de Janeiro was 53.2% female and 46.8% male. As a result of the influx of immigrants to Brazil from the late 19th to the early 20th century, also found in Rio de Janeiro and its metropolitan area are communities of Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Japanese, Jews, and people from other parts of Brazil. The main waves of internal migration came from people of African, mixed or older Portuguese (as descendants of early settlers) descent from Minas Gerais and people of Eastern European, Swiss, Italian, German, Portuguese and older Portuguese-Brazilian heritage from Espírito Santo.

History: Europeans first encountered Guanabara Bay on 1 January 1502 (hence Rio de Janeiro, “January River”), during a Portuguese expedition under explorer Gaspar de Lemos. On 27 January 1763, the colonial administration in Portuguese America was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. The city remained primarily a colonial capital until 1808, when the Portuguese royal family and most of the associated Lisbon nobles, fleeing from Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal, moved to Rio de Janeiro. From the colonial period until the first independent era, Rio de Janeiro was a city of slaves. There was a large influx of African slaves to Rio de Janeiro: in 1819, there were 145,000 slaves in the captaincy. In 1840, the number of slaves reached 220,000 people. Between 1811 and 1831, 500,000 to a million slaves arrived in Rio de Janeiro through Valongo Wharf, which is now a World Heritage Site. The Port of Rio de Janeiro was the largest port of slaves in America. At the time Brazil’s Old Republic was established, the city lacked urban planning and sanitation, which helped spread several diseases, such as yellow fever, dysentery, variola, tuberculosis and even black death. Pereira Passos, who was named mayor in 1902, imposed reforms to modernize the city, demolishing the cortiços where most of the poor population lived. These people, mostly descendants of slaves, then moved to live in the city’s hills, creating the first favelas. Until the early years of the 20th century, the city was largely limited to the neighborhood now known as the historic city center (see below), on the mouth of Guanabara Bay. The city’s center of gravity began to shift south and west to the so-called Zona Sul (South Zone) in the early part of the 20th century, when the first tunnel was built under the mountains between Botafogo and the neighborhood that is now known as Copacabana. Expansion of the city to the north and south was facilitated by the consolidation and electrification of Rio’s streetcar transit system after 1905. Botafogos natural environment, combined with the fame of the Copacabana Palace Hotel, the luxury hotel of the Americas in the 1930s, helped Rio to gain the reputation it still holds today as a beach party town. This reputation has been somewhat tarnished in recent years by favela violence resulting from the narcotics trade and militias.

Elevation: 2 m

Climate: Tropical hot and humid climate. Average annual temperature in Rio De Janeiro is 24 C (75 F), the average for July is 21 C (70 F), the average for January is 27 C (81 F).

Attractions: Sugarloaf Mountain Cable Car, Corcovado Christ The Redeemer, Irpanema Beach, Arpoador Beach, Morro Da Urca, Copacabana Beach, Museo Do Amanha, Maracana

Airports: Rio Galeao – Tom Jobim International Airport GIG

Distance To City Centre: 15 km

Commute Length: 20 min

Average Cost: 50 USD

Traffic Hours: 6 am – 9 am, 5 pm – 9 pm