increased about 2.4 percent a year, but the rural 
population is growing at a rate of about 1.5 percent 
compared with the urban growth rate of more than 
3.5 percent. Much of this difference is caused by 
internal migration, partly as a result of the drawing 
power of city pay and partly due to the push of 
prolonged severe drought on the people of the 
northeastern States. 
Some two-fifths of the population is under 15 
years old, and the birth rate is high—40 to 45 per 
1,000 population. ‘These dependent children while 
economically nonproductive are consumers, and 
their needs, especially those involving an outlay for 
education, impose a heavy burden on the adults who 
work. In 1960 it was estimated that 50 percent of 
the population could read and write. The number 
Table 1.—Area and population of Brazil, by regions, 1960 
| 
Region (administrative Area ! Population 
division) 
Mil- | 
lion | Per- | Thou- | Per- 
acres | cent | sands | cent 
INortliy. en oa. - etc eect tenes ea, 885 42 2, 602 4 
(Amazonas, Territério do Rio | 
Branco, Para, Territério do | 
Amapa, Territério do Acre, 
Territério do Rond6énia) 
Nomiheast Wi -erschcigas anion ome 239 | 11] 15,678 | 22 
(Maranhao, Piaui, Ceara, Rio 
Grande do Norte, Paraiba, | 
Pernambuco, Alag6as, Terri- | 
téria’ de Fernando’ de 
Noronha) 
DES is ne So Re ae Ce Ee 311 15 | 24, 833 35 
(Sergipe, Bahia, Minas Gerais, 
Espirito Santo, Rio de Ja- 
neiro, Guanabara) 
SOUb Iara clic caetorsdgieyaidee ois, ueneyanoteas 204 10 
(Sao Paulo, Paranda, Santa 
Catarina, Rio Grande do 
24, 680 35 
Sul) 
GentralsWest..8: 6 S:.cecee sai 464 | 22 3, 007 4 
(Mato Grosso, Goids, Distrito 
Federal) 
Motaley. cae cee 2,103 | 100 | 70, 800 100 
1 Includes swamps, rivers, and lakes. 
+ Head of navigation 
+++ Railroad 
Figure 6.—Principle rail and water transportation routes. 
of students in college in 1961, however, was little 
more than 101,000, and the number going to primary, 
secondary, and technical schools was only 8% mil- 
lion. Thus the skills necessary to man an expanding 
industrial economy in the modern sense are to a 
considerable degree lacking. 
The means of transportation available to the 
people include 27.000 miles of navigable rivers, 4,000 
miles of Atlantic coast, nearly 24,000 miles of rail- 
road (fig. 6), and 310,000 miles of Federal, State, 
Almost 80 percent of the 
railroad mileage is concentrated in the South and 
East. Nearly 9,000 miles of highway are paved. 
Rail and road mileages are only about one-tenth 
those of the United States. 
than 1,100 airports. 
A principal determining factor in the use of Brazil’s 
Most forest 
areas are outside of the parts of the couatry opened 
Transport, therefore, has been 
and municipal roads. 
Brazil also has more 
timber resources is transportation. 
up by railroads. 
more dependent on trucks, but road conditions are 
not very favorable, often difficult, and in rainy 
weather partly impassable. In a large part of the 
broadleaf forests, many of the timber species have 
little or no present economic importance and hence 
cannot carry the cost of transport over long distances. 
6 FOREST RESOURCE REPORT 16, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
