90% mestizos, 3% Europeans and approx. 100,000 Indians.
Religious
affiliation 94% Catholics, minorities of Protestants, Mennonites and Baha’is.
National language
Spanish and Guarani (official languages)
Capital, other cities
The capital of Paraguay is Asunción with a population of around 650,000 – in the metropolitan area of 1.5 million. According to Abbreviation Finder, PRY stands for Paraguay in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym.
Other cities are:
Lambaré with around 100,000 residents
Encarnación with around 55,400 residents
Ciudad del Este with around 134,000 residents
Fernando de la Mora with around 95,300 residents
Pedro Juan Caballero with around 53,600 residents
San Lorenzo with around 133,300 residents
Capiata with around 83,200 residents
Paraguay: geography, map
Paraguay covers a total area of 406,752 km². Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Paraguay. Thereof:
ForestAround 32% of the country is forested.
Meadow pasturelandAround 38% of the land is used as meadow or pasture land.
Fields and fieldsAround 5% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing soy, maize and grain.
Area and boundaries
Paraguay is located in a kind of S-shape in the middle of South America between Argentina and Brazil and shares a border with three states. There are limits
Argentina With a length of around 1,699 km
Bolivia With a length of around 470 km
Brazil With a length of around 1,339 km.
Longitude and latitude
Paraguay extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
Δφ = from 19 ° 14 ‘to 27 ° 36’ south latitude Δλ = from 54 ° 16 ‘to 62 ° 38’ west longitude
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.
Legal time
For Asunción, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), including the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than after CET:
Δt = – 6 h (summer) and – 4 h (winter)
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.
The highest point of the sun in Asunción
Asunción is located at a southern latitude of around φ = 25 ° and therefore very close to the tropics.
As long as the sun or its image point is on the southern tropic, summer begins in Asunción, this is December 21st. Then, for the highest position of the sun at noon, according to Eq. 1 (see position of the sun):
-25 ° = – (90 ° – h) + -23.5 °
also:
H = 88.5 °
At 88.5 °, the sun in Asunción has the highest level of the entire year above the horizon (more precisely: above the horizon).
Attention
The image point of the sun and thus the declination is located north of the latitude of Asunción all year round. This means that the sun at lunchtime in Asunción is not in the south, as in our latitudes, but always in the north. The sun moves here from east to north to west, where it then sets.
Mountains
Tres Candú
With a height of only 842 m, the Tres Candú is the highest mountain in the country. It is located in the Cordillera de Ybytyruzú in the Guairá department in the center of the south of the country
Capi´í
The Capi´í has a height of 816 m and is located in the Cordillera de Ybytyruzú in the Guairá department in the middle in the south of the country
Peró
The Peró has an altitude of 815 m in the Cordillera de Ybytyruzú in the Guairá department in the center of the south of the country
Amor
The Amor has a height of 765 m in the Cordillera de Ybytyruzú in the department Guairá in the middle in the south of the country
Rivers
Rio Paraná
The Rio Paraná has a length of around 4,000 km and, together with it, 4,290 km. The river has its source in Brazil. In the east it forms the border with Brazil, where it flows in a north-south direction and in the south that with Argentina, here it flows in an east-west direction. After a distance of approx. 500 km through Argentina, it flows into the Atlantic via the Rio de la Plata. The approx. 290 km long Rio de la Plata is the confluence of the Rio Uruguay with the Rio Paraná. A large part of the river is provided with sluices and dammed, so that little is left of its natural course.
RioParaguay
At 2,550 km, the Rio Paraguay is the longest river in Paraguay and the most important tributary of the Paraná. The river has its source in the highlands of Mato Grosso in Brazil.
In the south of the Pantanal – one of the largest inland wetlands in the world – it flows on Brazilian territory close to the border between Brazil and Bolivia. Then it forms the border between Paraguay and Brazil for about km. Then it flows further from north to south through Paraguay, where it also flows through the capital of the country Asunción, the place of union with the Río Pilcomayo – its largest tributary. Shortly afterwards it forms a border again, in the east between Paraguay and Argentina. It then flows into the Paraná north of the Argentine city of Corrientes.
RioPilcomayo
The Rio Pilcomayo has a total length of around 2,500 km. It rises east of the approximately 1,340 km² Poopó salt lake in Bolivia. On its way, it then forms a longer stretch of the border between Paraguay and Argentina – until it flows into the Río Paraguay near the capital Asunción.
Lakes, Itaipu Dam
Itaipu Dam or Reservoir
This reservoir is the largest in the world, along with the Three Gorges Reservoir in China. It was inaugurated in 1982 after 7 years of construction. It lies in the border area with Brazil. When filled, its water surface covers an area of 1,340 km² – with a volume of 29 billion m³ = 29 km³. After a series of expansions, the electrical output of the turbines driven by the reservoir water now amounts to 14,000 MW – for comparison, a German nuclear power plant has around 1,000 MW. The wall of the dam is 7,760 m long and has a maximum height of 196 m. The main inflow and outflow of the reservoir is the Paraná.
The building even found special appreciation in the composition “Itaipu” by the important American composer and musician. He wrote it after a visit to the facility in 1989.
Ypacarai Lake
Ypacarai Lake is the largest natural lake in the country with an area of 46 km², its greatest length is about 26 km and its greatest width about 6 km.
