What is the capital of Brazil?

Brasília is a purpose-built planned city on the Brazilian central highlands, at about 1,000 metres elevation, laid out on a plan often likened to an aeroplane or a bird.

Brasília is the capital and seat of government of Brazil, a role it has held since 1960. Brazil itself has an estimated population of 212,812,405 (2025).

Brasília is not the largest city in Brazil. That is São Paulo, which makes Brazil one of the countries whose capital is not their biggest city.

Brasília was inaugurated on 21 April 1960 as a purpose-built capital, planned by the urbanist Lúcio Costa and the architect Oscar Niemeyer; its modernist layout is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Brasília has been the capital of Brazil since 1960, when Brazil moved its capital inland from Rio de Janeiro to the newly built city, part of a deliberate plan to develop the country's interior.

Rio de Janeiro was Brazil's capital from 1763 to 1960, and Salvador was the colonial capital before that, from 1549 to 1763.

Brasília is Brazil's third-largest city; the much larger São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are not the seat of government.

It was built from open savannah in under four years to shift Brazil's centre of gravity away from the crowded Atlantic coast.

City facts sourced from Wikipedia: Brasília.

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