Uruguay

Uruguay has low, rolling hills.

There are no tall mountains. Long ago, tall grass covered most of the land. Rain can fall in every season. Winters are cool but not icy by the sea.

Uruguay is a land of gently rolling hills and plains, on average only 117 meters above sea level. Low ridges called cuchillas cross the country, and its highest point, Cerro Catedral near the southeast coast, is just 514 meters high. Tall-grass prairies once covered most of the land; today many are fenced pastures, and the few forests grow mainly in narrow strips along rivers.

The Uruguay River forms the western border, and the Negro River crosses the middle of the country. The climate is mild. Rain falls in every season, more than 1,000 millimeters a year, and frost is almost unknown on the coast.

Britannica describes gently rolling land averaging about 117 m, fringed on the coast by tidal lakes and sand dunes. The Cuchilla de Haedo in the north and the Cuchilla Grande in the southeast are low ridges that extend the Brazilian Highlands southward; Cerro Catedral (Mount Catedral), 514 m, near the southeastern coast, is the highest point. Valleys and coastal plains are covered with sand, clay and fertile alluvium.

Although well watered, Uruguay has no large river entirely within its borders. The Uruguay River and the Río de la Plata estuary are navigable for oceangoing ships up to Paysandú, and for smaller vessels to the falls at Salto; the Negro River runs northeast to southwest and is dammed at Rincón del Bonete. The climate is temperate, with no distinct dry or rainy season: mean annual precipitation is generally over 1,000 mm. Average July temperatures range from 12 °C at Salto to 10 °C at Montevideo, and January's from 26 °C to 22 °C; a cold wind called the pampero sometimes blows in from the Argentine Pampas. Tall-grass prairies once covered most of the land but now compete with planted pastures; native trees such as the ombu grow mainly along watercourses.

The capybara lives in Uruguay. It is a very big rodent.

Tiny owls called burrowing owls live there. Flamingos wade in the lagoons. Seals rest on little islands near the coast.

Many of Uruguay's native animals have disappeared, but foxes, deer, wildcats and armadillos still live there, along with capybaras, which are huge rodents. Tiny burrowing owls, hummingbirds and cardinals are among its birds, and parakeets are common in the hills.

The coastal lagoons are full of water birds such as white herons and flamingos. Seals live on small islands off the southeast coast, especially Lobos Island. Uruguay has a network of national parks and a wildlife reserve to protect its animals and birds.

Britannica notes that animals native to Uruguay have largely disappeared, although pumas are still occasionally found in remote areas. Native mammals include foxes, deer, wildcats, armadillos (called mulitas) and several rodents, among them the huge capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). Rheas now live mainly in semidomesticated settings.

Birdlife includes burrowing owls, lapwings, hummingbirds and cardinals; parakeets are plentiful in the hills, and the lagoons hold many waterfowl, including white herons and flamingos. Caimans inhabit the upper Uruguay River, and seals live on small islands off the southeastern coast, particularly Lobos Island. A network of national parks and a wildlife reserve protects animal and bird populations.

About 3.5 million people live in Uruguay.

People speak Spanish. Beef is an important food, and barbecues are very common. Many people drink maté from a cup made from a gourd. Football is a very popular sport.

About 3.5 million people live in Uruguay, and more than nine out of ten live in towns and cities. Spanish is spoken everywhere, and near the border with Brazil some people mix Portuguese and Spanish. Many Uruguayans are descended from people who came from Spain and Italy in the 1800s and 1900s.

Beef is very important in Uruguayan cooking, and barbecues called parrilladas are everywhere. A favorite drink is maté, a tea sipped from a gourd through a metal straw. The gaucho, or cowboy, is part of the country's art and songs, and at Carnival people dance the candombe, a folk dance performed mainly by Uruguayans of African ancestry.

INE's 2023 census counted 3,499,451 people: 19 percent were under 15 and 16 percent were 65 or older, and INE projects about 3.4 million by 2045. Britannica describes a population of mainly European origin, chiefly descended from 19th- and 20th-century immigrants from Spain and Italy; few direct descendants of the Indigenous peoples remain, and people of African ancestry form a small minority. Nearly half the population is at least nominally Roman Catholic, about one-third follow other Christian churches, and about one-sixth are agnostics or atheists; Montevideo has one of South America's larger Jewish communities.

Culture shares much with Argentina: the gaucho tradition runs through art and folklore, beef and parrilladas dominate cooking, and maté is a shared national drink. The candombe is a dance performed at Carnival mainly by Uruguayans of African ancestry, the Uruguayan composer Gerardo Matos Rodríguez wrote the famous tango "La cumparsita" (1917), and in the payada two guitarists take turns improvising verses. Education is free at every level, and football is a national passion.