Uruguay
Discover Uruguay
Introduction
Uruguay is the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America — about 176,000 square kilometres, with only 3.4 million people, some 40% of them in Montevideo. It borders Brazil to the north and Argentina to the west across the Uruguay River, with the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic along the south and east.
It is almost entirely rolling grassland — no mountains, no jungle, no desert — and about 95% of Uruguayans live in towns and cities, which makes it one of the most urbanised countries anywhere.
What sets it apart is not landscape. Uruguay separated church from state in 1917 and has stayed determinedly secular; it is consistently rated the strongest democracy and one of the least corrupt countries in Latin America; and it has legislated well ahead of its neighbours on abortion, same-sex marriage and cannabis. It also now generates roughly 90 to 98% of its electricity from renewable sources, with wind supplying a large share of it.
And this country of 3.4 million won the first football World Cup, at home, in 1930.