Transport and infrastructure in Brazil
Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Brazil with the average of all countries in America. The main traffic and transport routes are in good condition, but do not reach the level of the leading industrial nations.In terms of the length of its rail network, Brazil ranks 75th in the world with 0.14 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 29,850 kilometers long. Passenger traffic reached 16.49 billion passenger-kilometers in 2019.
The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the 7,491 km of coastline. In 2021, about 11.80 million freight containers were transported.
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Back to overview: Brazil
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 2.00 million km. For each of the country's 214.33 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 9.33 meters. This puts Brazil in 56th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 25 inhabitants per km². In this case, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.With an average of 41403 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Brazil is considered rather mixed. This corresponds to 19.9 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.
In Brazil, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Brazil | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 2,000,000 km | 9,331.57 km | 234.86 m |
| Railroads | 29,900 km | 139.27 km | 3.51 m |
| Waterways | 50,000 km | 233.29 km | 5.87 m |
| Commercial harbors | 864 | 4.03 | 0.000 |
| Airports | 116 | 0.54 | 0.014 |
South America | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 3,101,100 km | 7,134.46 km | 174.14 m |
| Railroads | 85,100 km | 195.82 km | 4.78 m |
| Waterways | 119,400 km | 274.61 km | 6.70 m |
| Commercial harbors | 2,260 | 5.20 | 0.000 |
| Airports | 330 | 0.76 | 0.000 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)
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