Uruguay
Name
| Official name | The Oriental Republic of Uruguay (República Oriental del Uruguay) — the 'Eastern Republic of the Uruguay', the land on the east bank of the Uruguay River; the state of the Preliminary Peace Convention of 27 August 1828 (Argentina and the Empire of Brazil, by Britain's mediation of Lord Ponsonby) and of the constitution of 18 July 1830 (the State of Montevideo of the first drafts); the constitutions of 1918, 1934, 1942, 1952 and 1967 (the 1967 text amended in 1989, 1994, 1996 and 2004); the UN's founding member (24 October 1945), the OAS's, Mercosur's founder (the Treaty of Asunción of 26 March 1991), ALADI's (1980; the seat at Montevideo), the WTO's (1 January 1995) |
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| Former names | The Banda Oriental (the 'Eastern Bank') of the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776–1814); the Provincia Oriental of José Gervasio Artigas's Federal League (1813–1820); the Cisplatine Province (Provincia Cisplatina) of the Portuguese United Kingdom (1821) and of the Empire of Brazil (1822–1828); the Estado Oriental of the 1828–1830 interval; the 'Switzerland of America' (la Suiza de América) of the first half of the 20th century, the nickname of the welfare state and the banking haven |
| Demonym | Uruguayan (uruguayo, uruguaya); oriental — 'the easterner' — the people's own and the anthem's word (the national team's fans and the official speeches); 'charrúa' the football team's poetic name after the native people (the 'garra charrúa' — the fighting spirit); 'yorugua' the slang's reversal of 'uruguayo'; the Uruguayans abroad about 500,000–600,000 by the counts (both stated; the 'department 20' of the diaspora's nickname) |
| Meaning of the name | From the Uruguay River — a Guaraní name of the disputed reading: 'the river of the painted birds' (the urugua — the birds of the bright plumage — and y, 'water') by the usual line, 'the river of the snails' (uruguá — the shells) by another, 'the river where the birds come from' by a third (all stated); 'Montevideo' of the disputed origins — 'Monte vide eu' ('I saw a mountain') of the legend of Magellan's sailor of 1520, the 'Monte VI de E. a O.' ('the sixth mountain from east to west') of the cartographers' reading, both stated (LAW 2) |
| Motto | 'Libertad o Muerte' ('Liberty or Death') — the motto of the Thirty-Three Orientals' flag of 1825 (the Treinta y Tres flag, one of the three national flags); the 'Pueblo Oriental' of Artigas's sayings; 'Uruguay Natural' the tourism brand (2001); 'Uruguay, the heart of South America' of the trade agency's line; the Artigas maxim 'that the most unhappy be the most privileged' of the 1815 land regulation, carved on the monuments |
Quick facts
| Capital | Montevideo — the capital and the chief port on the Río de la Plata; the department of 1,302,954 people by the 2023 census (about 38% of the nation), the metropolitan area about 1.8–2.0 million (both counts stated); founded by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala (the fort of 1724, the first settlers from Buenos Aires and the Canary Islands of 1726 — the founding date of 24 December 1726 by one line and of 1724 by the other, both stated); the Ciudad Vieja (the old town; the Citadel's gate and the Cabildo of 1804–1812), the Plaza Independencia and the Artigas mausoleum, the Palacio Salvo (1928; Mario Palanti's tower of about 100 m — South America's tallest building at its opening), the Palacio Legislativo (1925; the marble parliament), the Teatro Solís (1856), the Estadio Centenario (1930), the Mercado del Puerto, the Rambla along the river (about 22 km), the Cerro de Montevideo (about 134 m; the fortress of 1809–1811); the seat of Mercosur's secretariat and of ALADI; Mercer's Latin American top city for the quality of life of many years |
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| Largest cities | Montevideo (about 1.3 million in the department; the city proper about 1.3 million), Ciudad de la Costa (Canelones; about 110,000–115,000 — the beach suburbs east of the capital), Salto (about 105,000–110,000; the Uruguay River's city and the hot springs), Paysandú (about 75,000–80,000), Las Piedras (Canelones; about 70,000), Rivera (about 75,000–80,000; the twin of Brazil's Santana do Livramento), Maldonado (about 75,000–80,000; with Punta del Este the resort coast), Tacuarembó (about 55,000), Melo, Mercedes, Artigas, Minas, San José de Mayo, Durazno, Florida, Treinta y Tres, Colonia del Sacramento (about 27,000; the UNESCO town), Fray Bentos, Rocha, Trinidad; the counts of the 2011 and the 2023 censuses' localities (rounded, both counts' bases stated) |
| Official language | Spanish — the de facto national language (the Rioplatense Spanish of the voseo and the Italian-flavored intonation, shared with Buenos Aires); the General Education Law of 2008 (Law 18,437) names Spanish, the Uruguayan Portuguese of the northern border (the 'portuñol' or the Dialectos Portugueses del Uruguay of Rivera, Artigas and Cerro Largo) and the Uruguayan Sign Language (LSU; recognized by Law 17,378 of 2001) as the mother tongues of the country; English and Portuguese taught in the public schools (Plan Ceibal's English by video link); the Guaraní and the Charrúa words of the place names |
| Currency | Uruguayan peso (UYU; $U; 100 centésimos) — the peso uruguayo of 1 March 1993 (1 for 1,000 nuevos pesos); free-floating — about 40 pesos to the U.S. dollar (40.214 on 24 September 2026 by the reports), about 2.1–2.3 Indian rupees to the peso; the Banco Central del Uruguay (1967; President Guillermo Tolosa since 24 March 2025) — the inflation target of 4.5% within a 3–6% band, the policy rate (TPM) of 5.75% held on 1 July and 18 August 2026, the five years without a currency-market intervention marked on 1 September 2026 by the bank's line; the notes of 20 to 2,000 pesos (the 2,000-peso note of Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga), the coins of 1 to 50 pesos (the 10-peso coin with Artigas); the Unidad Indexada (UI) of the inflation-linked contracts; the U.S. dollar's wide use in the property, the cars and the bank deposits (about 70% of the deposits in dollars by the central bank's counts) |
| Time zone | UTC−3 the year round (Uruguay Time; the daylight saving time abolished in June 2015 after the energy ministry's study — no change of clocks since) — the same clock as Buenos Aires and São Paulo, 8 hours 30 minutes behind India (IST); the working week Monday to Friday; the dates in the Gregorian calendar; the 'Semana de Turismo' (the Holy Week's secular name) the autumn's holiday week |
| Calling code, internet and ISO codes | +598 (the state operator ANTEL — the fiber-to-the-home of about 80% of the homes and the 5G of 2019, the first of the region's commercial launches by the company's line; Claro and Movistar the mobile rivals); internet .uy; the Plan Ceibal's laptops for every schoolchild (2007); the digital government's ID (the cédula with the chip of 2015); ISO 3166 UY, URY, 858; the vehicle code ROU (the 'República Oriental del Uruguay'); the IOC code URU, FIFA code URU; the aircraft registration CX-; the plugs of Types C, F, I and L at 220 V and 50 Hz |
| Area | About 176,215 km² of land (68,037 sq mi) — about 318,400 km² with the territorial waters of the Río de la Plata, the Laguna Merín and the lakes (both bases stated) — the 89th to 91st of the world by the counts, the second-smallest state of South America after Suriname, about 5.4% of India's area; the land borders with Brazil (about 1,070 km; the Cuareim, the Yaguarón and the Laguna Merín, the dry frontier of Rivera and Chuy) and Argentina (about 580 km by the river line of the Uruguay); the coast about 660 km on the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic; the Rincón de Artigas (about 237 km²) and the Isla Brasilera (about 1 km²) claimed from Brazil (Brazil holding both — both stated, LAW 2) |
| Population | 3,444,263 counted by the census of 2023 (the Instituto Nacional de Estadística's count of the persons enumerated) — 3,499,451 with the omission's adjustment (both stated); 3,286,314 in 2011, 3,241,003 in 2004 (the count of that year), 3,163,763 in 1996, 2,595,510 in 1963; Montevideo 1,302,954 (about 38%), Canelones about 610,000, Maldonado about 210,000, then Salto, Colonia, Paysandú, San José and Rivera of about 105,000–140,000 each by the 2023 census; the women about 52%; the births below the deaths since 2021 by the vital statistics (about 31,000 births in 2023, down from about 48,000 in 2015); the immigrants of the 2010s–20s (the Venezuelans, the Cubans, the Dominicans, the Argentines of 2020–24) |
| Density | About 19–20 people per km² — among the thinnest of the Americas outside the Guianas and the Southern Cone's south; Montevideo about 2,500 per km² of its department (530 km²), Canelones about 135, the interior's grassland departments of 5–10 per km² (Flores about 5, Durazno and Artigas about 5–6); the cattle about 11–12 million head — about 3.3 cows for every Uruguayan |
| Religion | A secular state since the constitution of 1918 (the church and the state separated on 1 March 1919; the crucifixes out of the public hospitals by 1906; Christmas legally renamed 'Family Day' and the Holy Week 'Tourism Week' by the law of 1919) — the Roman Catholics about 35–42% by the surveys, the believers without a church and the non-religious about 37–45% (the highest share of the Americas by the usual line), the Protestants and the evangelicals about 10–15%, the Umbanda and the Afro-Brazilian faiths (Iemanjá's festival of 2 February on the beaches), the Jews about 12,000–17,000 (the region's community of Montevideo), the Muslims and the Buddhists small; the figures of the surveys of 2008–2024, both ranges stated |
| Government type | Unitary presidential constitutional republic under the constitution of 1967 (amended in 1989, 1994, 1996 and 2004) — the President elected for five years with the Vice President (the runoff since the reform of 1996; no immediate reelection), the General Assembly of two chambers (the Senate of 30 with the Vice President, the Chamber of Representatives of 99), the Supreme Court of Justice, the Electoral Court and the Court of Administrative Disputes, the 19 departments of the elected intendants; the plebiscites and the referendums of the citizens' initiatives (the 2024 social security and night-raid plebiscites rejected); the Economist Intelligence Unit's 'full democracy' (the region's top ranks) and Freedom House's 96 of 100 ('Free') by the 2025 reports |
| Head of state | President Yamandú Orsi (Yamandú Ramón Antonio Orsi Martínez; since 1 March 2025) — born 13 June 1967 in Canelones, the son of the grape growers and the shopkeepers, the history teacher, the Broad Front's intendant of Canelones (2015–2024) of the Movement of Popular Participation (José Mujica's sector); the winner of the runoff of 24 November 2024 over Álvaro Delgado (the National Party) — 49.8% to 45.9% of the votes cast, about 52% to 48% of the valid votes (both stated); the cabinet of 1 March 2025; the visit to China (29 January – 8 February 2026; Xi Jinping on 3 February, 11 agreements signed), the CELAC presidency of 2026, the UN General Assembly's address of September 2026 (the multilateralism's defense and the Cuban embargo's condemnation); the approval of about 28% to 51% disapproval by one poll of August 2026 (by the reports) |
| Head of government | The President heads the government with the Council of Ministers (14 ministries; the cabinet of 1 March 2025) — Vice President Carolina Cosse (born 25 November 1961; the engineer, ANTEL's president of 2010–2015, Montevideo's intendant of 2020–2024; the Senate's president); the Secretary of the Presidency Alejandro Sánchez and the Prosecretary Jorge Díaz; the Office of Planning and Budget's Rodrigo Arim; the ministers — Economy and Finance Gabriel Oddone, Foreign Relations Mario Lubetkin, Interior Carlos Negro, National Defense Sandra Lazo, Public Health Cristina Lustemberg, Education and Culture José Carlos Mahía, Social Development Gonzalo Civila, Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries Alfredo Fratti, Industry, Energy and Mining Fernanda Cardona, Transport and Public Works Lucía Etcheverry, Labor and Social Welfare Juan Castillo, Tourism Pablo Menoni, Environment Edgardo Ortuño, Housing Tamara Paseyro (from April 2025, after the designate Cecilia Cairo's resignation of February 2025) |
| Legislature | The General Assembly (Asamblea General; the Palacio Legislativo of 1925) — the Chamber of Senators of 30 elected nationally plus the Vice President (the Broad Front 16, the National Party 9, the Colorado Party 5 for 2025–2030) and the Chamber of Representatives of 99 by the departments (the Broad Front 48, the National Party 29, the Colorado Party 17, Cabildo Abierto 2, Identidad Soberana 2, the Independent Party 1) — the government's majority in the Senate and its three-seat shortfall in the Chamber; elected on 27 October 2024 for five years by the closed lists' proportional representation (the D'Hondt rule), the 50th Legislature from 15 February 2025 |
| National Day | 25 August — the Independence Day (the Declaration of Independence of the Florida Assembly of 25 August 1825 from the Brazilian empire); 18 July — the Constitution Day (the oath of 1830); 19 April — the Landing of the Thirty-Three Orientals (1825); 18 May — the Battle of Las Piedras (1811); 19 June — Artigas's birth (1764; the 'Never Again' day and the schoolchildren's oath to the flag); 12 October — the Day of the Americas; the five paid national holidays by law — 1 January, 1 May, 18 July, 25 August and 25 December (the 'Family Day'); the Carnival's Monday and Tuesday and the Tourism Week the others |
| Driving side and HDI | Right (the national roads of about 8,700 km; the Ruta Interbalnearia and the Ruta 1, 5 and 9; the tolls of the national roads); Human Development Index of about 0.83–0.86 by the 2024 and the 2025 reports' revisions (both stated), 'very high', among South America's top three with Chile and Argentina; the Gini about 0.38–0.40; life expectancy about 78 years; the GDP a head about US$25,000 (2025, by the relays) — the highest of South America by most counts with Chile's close; the middle class the largest share of the region's by the World Bank's line |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The Pabellón Nacional of the law of 11 July 1830 — nine horizontal stripes, five white and four blue, with the golden Sun of May (the face of the Inca sun god by the usual reading) on the white canton; the first flag of 16 December 1828 with nine blue stripes, reduced to four by the 1830 law; the proportion 2:3; one of three official flags with the Artigas flag (the blue-white-blue bands crossed by the red diagonal of 1815) and the Treinta y Tres flag (the blue, white and red bands with 'Libertad o Muerte' of 1825) — the three flown together on the public buildings by the decree of 1952; the schoolchildren's oath to the flag on 19 JuneFlag of Uruguay |
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| Coat of arms | The national coat of arms of the law of 19 March 1829 — the oval shield quartered: the golden scales on blue (the equality and the justice), the Cerro de Montevideo with its fortress on silver (the strength), the free horse on silver (the liberty) and the ox on blue (the abundance); the rising Sun of May on top, the olive and the laurel branches around tied with a blue ribbon; the design simplified by the laws of 1906 and 1908; on the coins, the passports and the presidential sash |
| National anthem | The Himno Nacional de la República Oriental del Uruguay — the words by Francisco Acuña de Figueroa (approved on 8 July 1833; Acuña also wrote Paraguay's anthem's text by the usual line), the music by the Hungarian-born composer Francisco José Debali (1845; adopted on 25 July 1848); about 105 bars and 11 stanzas — among the world's longest anthems by its playing time (about 5 minutes; the first stanza and the chorus sung at the events), the 'Orientales' of its opening address the people's name |
| National motto | 'Libertad o Muerte' ('Liberty or Death') — the motto of the Thirty-Three Orientals of 1825 on the Treinta y Tres flag; no motto on the coat of arms; Artigas's phrases on the monuments — 'With liberty I neither offend nor fear' (Con libertad ni ofendo ni temo) and the 1815 land rule's 'that the most unhappy be the most privileged' |
| National colors | Sky blue and white — the flag's and the national team's ('La Celeste' — 'the Sky Blue'; the sky-blue shirt since 1910, taken from the Montevideo club River Plate's colors after the 1910 win over Argentina by the usual line); the gold of the Sun of May; the red of the Artigas flag and of the Colorado Party, the white of the Blancos, the Broad Front's red, blue and white bands |
| National animal | None by law — the southern lapwing (the tero; the watchful bird of the grassland — the people's national bird by the usual line), the rufous hornero (the ovenbird of the clay nests), the greater rhea (the ñandú; the protected grassland bird), the capybara and the coypu of the wetlands, the South American sea lions and the fur seals of the Isla de Lobos (among the region's largest colonies), the southern right whale off Rocha and Maldonado (the waters a whale and dolphin sanctuary by the law of 2013), the creole horse and the Hereford and Aberdeen-Angus cattle of the estancias |
| National flower and tree | The ceibo (Erythrina crista-galli — the coral tree's red flower of the river banks; the national flower by the decree of 1987 by the usual relay, shared with Argentina's own choice), the ombú (Phytolacca dioica — the giant herb-tree of the pampas, the gauchos' shade, the national tree by custom), the native palms of Rocha (the butiá palm groves of San Luis and Castillos — the Butia odorata), the algarrobo and the quebracho of the north; the pine and the eucalyptus plantations of the forestry law of 1987 (about 1.1 million hectares) |
| National dish | None by law — the asado (the barbecue of the beef ribs, the chorizo and the morcilla over the wood embers of the parrilla; the national dish by the usual line), the chivito (the steak sandwich of the 1940s, claimed by the El Mejillón restaurant of Punta del Este — the national dish by the other line, both stated), the milanesa, the torta frita of the rainy days, the faina and the Italian-born pizza, the chajá cake of Paysandú, the alfajores and the dulce de leche; the mate (the yerba mate infusion — the world's highest yerba consumption per person, about 8–10 kg a year by the industry's counts); the tannat red wine (the national grape since the Basque Pascual Harriague's vines of 1870) |
| National sport | Football by custom — the national team 'La Celeste': the World Cups of 1930 (the host; 4–2 over Argentina at the Centenario on 30 July 1930) and 1950 (the Maracanazo — 2–1 over Brazil at Rio on 16 July 1950), the Olympic golds of 1924 and 1928, the 15 Copa América titles (the last of 2011; Argentina's 16th of 2024 passing it), the fourth places of 1954, 1970 and 2010; the four stars on the shirt (the two World Cups and the two Olympic titles counted as FIFA-organized world championships by the AUF's line; two world titles by FIFA's own count — both stated, LAW 2); the clubs Peñarol (1891) and Nacional (1899) and the clásico; the jineteada (the rodeo of the Semana Criolla del Prado), the basketball, the rugby (Los Teros at the Rugby World Cups), the beach and the surf of Rocha |
| Heritage listings | Three World Heritage properties by UNESCO's list — the Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento (1995; the Portuguese town of 1680), the Fray Bentos Industrial Landscape (2015; the Liebig's and the Anglo meat-packing plant of 1859–1979 — the 'kitchen of the world' of the corned beef and the meat extract), the Work of Engineer Eladio Dieste: Church of Atlántida (2021; the reinforced-brick church of 1958–1960); the intangible heritage — the candombe and its socio-cultural space (2009) and the tango (2009, with Argentina); the tentative list (the Quebrada de los Cuervos, the Montevideo modern architecture) |
| Symbol status | The flag by the law of 11 July 1830 (and the decree of 1952 on the three flags), the coat of arms by the law of 19 March 1829 (the laws of 1906 and 1908 on its form), the anthem by the decree of 25 July 1848 (the score fixed in 1938); the national holidays by the law of 1919 and the holiday laws of 1997; the oath to the flag on 19 June in the schools by custom and the decree; no national dish, sport or animal by law — the asado, the football and the tero by custom; the use of the symbols regulated by the protocol decrees |
Geography
| Location | The southeast of South America between about 30°05′ and 35° S and 53°11′ and 58°26′ W — on the north shore of the Río de la Plata's estuary and the South Atlantic, east of the Uruguay River; between Argentina (the west, across the Uruguay River and the Río de la Plata) and Brazil (the north and the northeast, Rio Grande do Sul); the only South American state wholly south of the Tropic of Capricorn besides Argentina and Chile's south; Montevideo about 200 km across the estuary from Buenos Aires |
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| Regions | The 19 departments (Montevideo the smallest at about 530 km², Tacuarembó the largest at about 15,400 km²) in the natural regions — the coastal plain of the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic (Colonia to Rocha; the beaches, the lagoons, the dunes of Cabo Polonio), the Basaltic Cuesta of the northwest (Artigas, Salto, Paysandú; the thin soils and the cattle), the Northeast Sedimentary Basin (Tacuarembó, Rivera; the sandstone hills and the forestry), the Cuchilla Grande's crystalline shield of the east (Lavalleja, Maldonado; the sierras), the Eastern Lowlands of the Laguna Merín (Treinta y Tres, Rocha; the rice fields and the wetlands), the Litoral plains of the Uruguay River (Soriano, Río Negro; the soybean and the wheat) |
| Highest point | Cerro Catedral (the 'Cathedral Hill') in the Sierra Carapé of Maldonado — about 514 m (513.66 m by the military geographic service's survey of 1973), which displaced the Cerro de las Ánimas (about 501 m; the Sierra de las Ánimas of Maldonado) as the highest point (both heights stated); the Cerro Pan de Azúcar (about 389 m; the giant cross), the Cerro Arequita (Lavalleja), the Cuchilla Grande (about 300–500 m) and the Cuchilla de Haedo (about 200–400 m) the low ranges; no point of the country above about 520 m |
| Lowest point | The Atlantic Ocean and the Río de la Plata at sea level (0 m) — the coastal lagoons (Laguna de Rocha, Laguna de Castillos, Laguna Negra, Laguna Garzón; the sand bars opening to the sea), the Bañados del Este's wetlands at a few meters, the low banks of the Uruguay River and the Río Negro's delta; the average altitude about 117 m |
| Longest river | The Río Negro — about 750–850 km by the counts (both stated), rising in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul and crossing the country southwest to the Uruguay River near Nueva Palmira; dammed at Rincón del Bonete (1945), Baygorria (1960) and Palmar (1982); the Uruguay River (about 1,800 km; the border with Argentina, the Salto Grande dam of 1979) the longest on the frontier; the Yí, the Tacuarembó, the Queguay, the Santa Lucía (Montevideo's drinking water), the Cebollatí and the Yaguarón the others |
| Largest lake | The Rincón del Bonete reservoir (the Gabriel Terra lake on the Río Negro; about 1,070–1,140 km² by the counts, both stated; the largest artificial lake of South America at its filling in 1945 by the usual line); the Laguna Merín (Lagoa Mirim; about 3,750 km², shared with Brazil — the larger part Brazil's) the largest natural water body on the border; the Salto Grande lake (about 780 km², shared with Argentina); the coastal lagoons of Rocha, Castillos, Negra and José Ignacio; the Laguna del Sauce (Maldonado's water) |
| Largest island | No large islands — the river islands of the Uruguay River and the Río Negro the biggest (the Islas del Queguay and the Vizcaíno of the Río Negro's mouth among them by the counts); Timoteo Domínguez (the river island grown onto Argentina's Martín García by the silt — the 1973 Treaty of the Río de la Plata's line); the sea's Isla de Lobos (off Punta del Este; the sea lions' island and the lighthouse of 1906), Isla Gorriti (Maldonado's bay; the Spanish batteries), Isla de Flores (off Montevideo; the lighthouse of 1828 and the old quarantine station, the political prisoners' island of the 1930s) |
| Climate | Humid subtropical (Cfa by the Köppen map; the cooler Cfb patches of the southeastern hills by some maps) — the four seasons with no dry season, the mean temperatures of about 16 °C in the south and 19–20 °C in the north, the summers of about 25–30 °C and the winters of about 10–12 °C (the frosts of the interior), the rainfall of about 1,100 mm in the south to about 1,600 mm in the north; the pampero (the cold southwest wind) and the sudestada (the storm wind of the southeast); the records of about 44 °C (Florida and Paysandú, January 1943) and about −11 °C (Melo, June 1967) by the meteorological institute's tables (both records stated by the institute's usual line) |
| Natural hazards | The droughts (2022–2023 the worst in about 70 years by the official line — the Paso Severino reservoir near empty, the salty tap water of Montevideo from May to August 2023 and the water emergency declared on 19 June 2023; the soybean losses of the 2026 drought — the farm sector's −22.2% of the second quarter by the reports), the floods (the Río Negro and the Uruguay of 1959, 2007, 2015–16, 2019 and May 2024; the evacuations of Durazno, Salto and Artigas), the tornado of Dolores (Soriano; 15 April 2016, killing four to five by the counts), the extratropical cyclones and the sudestadas, the hail, the polar fronts (the cold wave of June 2025, seven dead by the reports), the wildfires of the dry summers |
| Nearby countries | Brazil (the north and the northeast; about 1,070 km of border — the Cuareim/Quaraí and the Yaguarón/Jaguarão rivers, the Laguna Merín, the dry land frontier of Rivera–Santana do Livramento and Chuy–Chuí; the Rincón de Artigas and the Isla Brasilera claimed by Uruguay — both stated, LAW 2), Argentina (the west and the south; about 580 km down the Uruguay River and across the Río de la Plata; the 1961 Uruguay River treaty and the 1973 Treaty of the Río de la Plata and its Maritime Front; the pulp mill dispute decided by the International Court of Justice on 20 April 2010); Paraguay (no border; the Mercosur partner); Chile and Bolivia (Mercosur's associate and member) |
| Minerals and resources | The fertile grassland (about 85–90% of the land in farm use — the natural pasture of the cattle and the sheep, the crops of the litoral), the water (the Guaraní Aquifer under the north; the hydropower of the Río Negro and the Uruguay), the forests of the plantations (eucalyptus and pine), the granite and the marble (Lavalleja's black granite), the agates and the amethysts of Artigas (the Catalán geodes — among the world's largest amethyst geodes, exported for the decoration), the gold of the Minas de Corrales (Rivera; mined since the 19th century, the open pits of the 1990s–2010s), the iron ore of Valentines (the Aratirí project shelved after 2014), the sand, the limestone and the clay; no oil or gas production (the offshore exploration of the 2010s–20s without a find) |
| Protected areas | The National System of Protected Areas (SNAP; Law 17,234 of 2000, the first area entered in 2008) of about 18–20 areas by the counts (both stated) — the Quebrada de los Cuervos (Treinta y Tres; the first, 2008), the Esteros de Farrapos and the islands of the Uruguay River (the national park; a Ramsar site of 2004), the Cabo Polonio national park (2009; the village without roads or grid power, the sea lions and the lighthouse of 1881), the Laguna de Rocha (Ramsar 2015), the Valle del Lunarejo (Rivera), the Montes del Queguay, the Cerro Verde, the Laguna Garzón, the Santa Teresa national park (the fortress of 1762); the Bañados del Este biosphere reserve of UNESCO (1976) and its Ramsar site (1984) |
| Extreme points | North: the Cuareim's bend near Bella Unión (Artigas; about 30°05′ S), the meeting of the Uruguay River, the Cuareim and the Brazil border; South: Punta del Este (Maldonado; about 34°58′ S — the Isla de Lobos about 35°02′ S); East: the Barra del Chuy at the Chuy stream's mouth on the Atlantic (Rocha; about 53°11′ W); West: the Uruguay River near Nueva Palmira and the Punta Gorda (Colonia; about 58°26′ W); the center near the Paso de los Toros and Tacuarembó's south |
| Land and water | About 176,215 km² of land and about 318,400 km² with the waters (both bases stated) — the grassland (the campos — the rolling, tree-poor prairie of the pampas' northern edge) about 70–80%, the planted forests about 6%, the native forests about 5% (the gallery woods of the rivers, the ravine forests of the north), the crops about 10–12%, the wetlands and the lagoons of the east; the rivers draining to the Uruguay and the Río de la Plata (about 80% of the land) and to the Laguna Merín and the Atlantic (the east) |
| Islands and coasts | About 660 km of coast — the Río de la Plata's shore (about 450 km; the brown, fresh-to-brackish waters of Colonia, San José and Montevideo, the beaches of the Rambla) and the Atlantic's (about 220 km; the clear sea from Punta del Este to the Barra del Chuy — the surf of La Paloma and Punta del Diablo, the dunes of Cabo Polonio, the Santa Teresa's palms); Punta del Este the dividing point of the river and the ocean by the usual line; the shipwrecks of the Banco Inglés (the English Bank sandbar off Montevideo); the islands of Lobos, Gorriti and Flores and the river islands |
| The country | The 'purple land' of W. H. Hudson's novel of 1885 in five pictures — the grassland of the estancias and the gauchos (the cattle, the sheep and the horses, the lonely roads of Tacuarembó), Montevideo's Rambla and the Ciudad Vieja (the mate in hand, the candombe drums of the Barrio Sur), the Atlantic coast of Punta del Este (the 'Los Dedos' hand in the sand) and the wild beaches of Rocha, the cobbled streets of Colonia del Sacramento, the Uruguay River's thermal towns of Salto and the pulp mills of Fray Bentos and Paso de los Toros; the wind turbines across the hills |
People
| Population | 3,444,263 counted by the census of 2023 and 3,499,451 with the omission's adjustment (both stated) — the slowest-growing of the Americas: 1,042,686 in 1908, 2,595,510 in 1963, 2,955,241 in 1985, 3,163,763 in 1996, 3,286,314 in 2011; the departments by the 2023 census — Montevideo 1,302,954, Canelones about 610,000, Maldonado about 210,000, Salto about 135,000, Colonia about 135,000, Paysandú about 117,000, San José about 115,000, Rivera about 105,000, Tacuarembó about 95,000, Cerro Largo about 85,000, Soriano about 83,000, Rocha about 78,000, Artigas about 75,000, Florida about 70,000, Lavalleja about 58,000, Durazno about 58,000, Río Negro about 56,000, Treinta y Tres about 48,000, Flores about 26,000 (rounded) |
|---|---|
| Growth rate | About 0.0–0.2% a year by the estimates (both stated) — the 2011–2023 intercensal growth about 0.2–0.4% a year with the immigrants' inflow; the natural change negative since 2021 (the deaths above the births); the emigration waves of the 1970s (the dictatorship's exile) and of 2001–2003 (the banking crisis; about 100,000 left by the estimates), the return and the immigration of the 2010s (the Venezuelans, the Cubans, the Dominicans, the Argentines) |
| Fertility rate | About 1.2–1.3 children per woman by the vital statistics of 2023–24 (both stated) — the lowest of the country's record and among the Americas' lowest, down from about 2.0 in 2015 (the drop of the teenage births after the long-acting contraception programs of 2016 onward); the births about 31,000 in 2023 against about 48,000 in 2015; the demographic transition early — the fertility about 3 in 1950, the Southern Cone's earliest fall |
| Life expectancy | About 78 years at birth (the men about 74–75, the women about 81–82 by the estimates; both stated) — the region's upper tier; the pandemic's dip of 2021 (about 7,600 COVID deaths in all by the official count); the heart disease and the cancers the main causes of death; the smoking's fall after the 2006 ban |
| Age structure | 0–14 years about 18–19%, 15–64 about 65%, 65 and over about 16% by the 2023 census and the estimates (both stated) — the oldest population of South America; the median age about 36–37; the pensioners about one in four adults (the social security's weight — the 2023 pension reform raising the age from 60 to 65 and the 2024 plebiscite to reverse it rejected) |
| Urbanization | About 95–96% urban by the census — among the world's most urbanized states; Montevideo's metropolitan area about half of the nation (both counts stated), the department capitals' towns of 25,000–135,000, the coastal belt of Canelones and Maldonado growing fastest; the rural population about 4–5% (the estancias, the rice and the dairy farms) |
| Ethnic groups | The people of European descent about 85–88% by self-identification (the Spanish — the Galicians, the Basques and the Canary Islanders — and the Italians of the mass migration of 1860–1930, the French, the Germans, the British, the Swiss of Nueva Helvecia, the Armenians, the Lebanese, the Jews of the 1920s–40s), the Afro-Uruguayans about 8–11% by the ancestry questions of the 2011 and the 2023 censuses (both stated; the candombe's people of the Barrio Sur and Palermo), the indigenous ancestry about 5% (the Charrúa and the Guaraní descent; the 'country without Indians' of the old official line and the descendants' movement of the 2000s both stated, LAW 2) |
| Languages | Spanish — the Rioplatense dialect (the voseo, the 'sh' sound of the 'll' and the 'y', the Italian intonation and the lunfardo slang of the tango, the 'ta' for 'okay' and the 'bo' of the address); the Uruguayan Portuguese (the 'portuñol' or the DPU) of the Brazil border towns (Rivera, Artigas, Chuy, Río Branco); the Uruguayan Sign Language (LSU; Law 17,378 of 2001); the English of the schools and the business; the Italian, the Galician, the German and the Armenian of the communities |
| Religion | A secular state since 1918–1919 (the laicidad — the most secular society of Latin America by the surveys' usual line): the Catholics about 35–42%, the non-religious and the believers without a church about 37–45%, the Protestants and the evangelicals about 10–15% (the Pentecostal growth of the 2000s–20s), the Umbanda and the Afro-Brazilian faiths about 1–2%, the Jews about 0.3–0.5%, the others small (both ranges of the surveys of 2008–2024 stated); the Montevideo Cathedral (1790–1804), the Iemanjá festival of 2 February (the sea goddess's offerings at the Playa Ramírez and along the coast) |
| Health | The National Integrated Health System (SNIS; 2007) — the National Health Fund (FONASA) financing the care of most residents through the mutual societies (the mutualistas — the private nonprofit health co-ops of the 19th-century immigrants' tradition) and the state's ASSE (the public provider); the health spending about 9–10% of GDP; the tobacco control (the smoke-free law of 1 March 2006 — the first of South America; the plain-packaging and the warning dispute won against Philip Morris at the World Bank's arbitration panel on 8 July 2016); the cannabis law of 2013; the abortion law of 2012 and the euthanasia law of 15 October 2025 (the Senate's 20 of 31; the Chamber's 64 of 99 on 13 August 2025) |
| Education | Free, secular and compulsory public education (the Varela reform of 1877 — José Pedro Varela's law of the free and compulsory schooling; the compulsory years from 4 to 17 since 2008) — the literacy about 98–99%; the Plan Ceibal (2007; the first state to give a laptop to every public schoolchild and teacher — the One Laptop per Child's model); the University of the Republic (Udelar; 1849; free and open entry, about 150,000 students), the Technological University (UTEC; 2012), the private universities (the Catholic University of 1985, ORT, Montevideo); the PISA scores of the region's top (with Chile); the secondary dropout the system's weak point (about 40% not finishing by the age of 21 by the reports) |
| Migrants and diaspora | The Uruguayans abroad about 500,000–600,000 by the estimates (both stated) — about 15% of the people; Argentina (about 120,000–130,000), Spain (about 70,000–100,000; with the Spanish and the Italian passports of the descent), the United States (about 50,000–60,000), Brazil, Australia (the 1970s' wave), Chile, Mexico; the 'department 20' of the political parties' outreach; the abroad vote not allowed (the plebiscite of 2009 rejected it); the immigrants — the Argentines, the Venezuelans (about 20,000–30,000), the Cubans (the 2020s' arrivals via Guyana), the Dominicans, the Brazilians; the residence for the Mercosur nationals (the 2014 law) and the Argentine tax residents of Punta del Este and Montevideo (the 2020–24 inflow) |
| Social indicators | The poverty about 17% of the people by the INE's income line in 2024–25 (about one in three of the children under six — the infant poverty the debate's focus), the extreme poverty about 0.3%; the Gini about 0.38–0.40 (the region's lowest with Argentina's); the unemployment about 7.0–7.1% (mid-2026 by the reports; the youth about 21%); the minimum wage of 25,383 pesos a month from 1 July 2026 (about US$630 by the reports); the women's political representation lower than the region's average; the prison population about 16,000–17,000 (among the world's highest rates for the size — about 450–500 per 100,000 by the parliamentary commissioner's counts) |
| Cities and provinces | The 19 departments (the first nine of 1830; the last, Flores, of 1885), each with an intendant and a departmental board (the junta of 31 members) elected every five years, and 136 municipalities (the mayor and the council; the decentralization law of 2009 — 89 in 2010, 125 in 2020, 136 in 2025); the department capitals named after the department in most cases (Salto, Paysandú, Rivera) — the exceptions Montevideo, San José de Mayo, Mercedes (Soriano), Fray Bentos (Río Negro), Trinidad (Flores), Melo (Cerro Largo), Minas (Lavalleja), Canelones (the town), Maldonado (the town), Colonia del Sacramento |
| Names and customs | The Spanish naming of the two surnames (the father's then the mother's; the 2013 law letting the parents choose the order); the mate everywhere (the gourd and the thermos under the arm — the yerba's world record per person), the Sunday asado of the family, the 'Tourism Week' and the 'Family Day' of the secular calendar, the Carnival of about 40 days (the world's longest by the usual line — the murgas, the parodistas and the candombe's Llamadas parade of the Barrio Sur and Palermo in February), the gaucho's traditions (the Semana Criolla's rodeo of the Holy Week at the Prado, the Fiesta de la Patria Gaucha of Tacuarembó), the 29th of the month's ñoquis (the gnocchi of the payday's eve) |
| Media and sport culture | The newspapers El País (1918), El Observador (1991), la diaria (2006) and the weekly Búsqueda (1972); the television channels 4, 10 and 12 of the private networks and the public TNU (Canal 5) and TV Ciudad; the radios El Espectador and Sarandí; the football's rule of the culture — the clásico of Peñarol and Nacional (the world's oldest outside the British Isles by the usual line), the Estadio Centenario (the FIFA's historical monument of world football of 1983), the 'garra charrúa'; the stars Obdulio Varela, Alcides Ghiggia and Juan Alberto Schiaffino of 1950, Enzo Francescoli, Diego Forlán (the 2010 World Cup's Golden Ball), Luis Suárez (69 goals — the record scorer), Edinson Cavani (58), Federico Valverde, Darwin Núñez; the basketball's and the rugby's followings |
Government
| System | Unitary presidential republic under the constitution of 1967 (the reforms of 1989, 1994, 1996 and 2004 by plebiscite) — the President and the Vice President elected together for five years (an absolute majority or the runoff since 1996; no immediate reelection), the General Assembly of the Senate (30 plus the Vice President) and the Chamber of Representatives (99), the Supreme Court of Justice; the departmental governments elected separately in May (since 1999–2000); the direct democracy of the referendums and the plebiscites — about 30 national votes since 1917; the colegiado (the nine-member National Council of Government that replaced the President in 1952–1967 — the Swiss-style executive) the country's own experiment |
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| Head of state | President Yamandú Orsi (the Broad Front; since 1 March 2025; the 43rd president by the official list) — the head of state, of the government and of the armed forces; born 13 June 1967 in Canelones; the intendant of Canelones of 2015–2024; the Movement of Popular Participation's heir of José Mujica (who died on 13 May 2025); the term to 1 March 2030 |
| Head of government | The President leads the government — Vice President Carolina Cosse (since 1 March 2025; the Senate's president, the successor in the vacancy); the Council of Ministers of 14 ministries (the cabinet of 1 March 2025 — the economy team of Gabriel Oddone and the Office of Planning and Budget's Rodrigo Arim, the Secretary of the Presidency Alejandro Sánchez); the ministers answerable to the General Assembly (the interpellation and the censure by an absolute majority of the Assembly); the five-year budget law (the national budget of 2025–2029 passed in 2025) and the yearly Rendición de Cuentas (the accounts and the budget adjustment law, the next one effective 1 January 2027 by the reports) |
| Legislature | The General Assembly of 130 (the Senate of 30 plus the Vice President; the Chamber of 99) — the 50th Legislature of 2025–2030 from 15 February 2025: the Senate the Broad Front 16, the National Party 9, the Colorado Party 5 (the government's majority with the Vice President's vote); the Chamber the Broad Front 48, the National Party 29, the Colorado Party 17, Cabildo Abierto 2, Identidad Soberana 2, the Independent Party 1 (the government three short of the 50 — the deals with the small parties); the Chamber's presidency rotating each year among the parties; the Palacio Legislativo of 1925 (Vittorio Meano's and Gaetano Moretti's marble design) |
| Parties | The Broad Front (Frente Amplio; 5 February 1971 — the coalition of the left founded by Líber Seregni; the Movement of Popular Participation, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Seregnista and the social democratic sectors; in power 2005–2020 and from 2025; president Fernando Pereira); the National Party (the Blancos; 1836 — the white of Manuel Oribe's men; Luis Lacalle Pou's party of 2020–2025; Álvaro Delgado its 2024 candidate and leader); the Colorado Party (1836 — the red of Fructuoso Rivera's; the party of the Batlles and of the state's long 19th–20th century rule; Andrés Ojeda the 2024 candidate); Cabildo Abierto (2019; Guido Manini Ríos), the Independent Party (Pablo Mieres), Identidad Soberana (Gustavo Salle; 2 deputies in 2024); the 'Republican Coalition' of the opposition's joint lists in 2025's departmental races |
| Judiciary | The Supreme Court of Justice (five justices chosen by two-thirds of the General Assembly for ten years) at the head — the appeals courts, the trial courts and the justices of the peace; the Court of Administrative Disputes (TCA) for the state's acts, the Electoral Court for the elections; the accusatory criminal procedure (the new Code of Criminal Procedure in force since 1 November 2017 — the prosecutors in charge of the investigations); the Office of the Attorney General (the Fiscalía General de la Nación; Mónica Ferrero — the attack with gunfire and a grenade on her home on 28 September 2025 by the reports); the civil law of the Civil Code of 1868; no death penalty (abolished in 1907) |
| Administrative divisions | 19 departments (departamentos) — Artigas, Canelones, Cerro Largo, Colonia, Durazno, Flores, Florida, Lavalleja, Maldonado, Montevideo, Paysandú, Río Negro, Rivera, Rocha, Salto, San José, Soriano, Tacuarembó, Treinta y Tres — each with an elected intendant (intendente; two terms in a row at most) and a departmental board of 31 members, and 136 municipalities (the third level of the 2009 law; the mayors and the councils of five); the departmental elections of 11 May 2025: the National Party 13 departments on the night (Lavalleja's narrow count decided by the observed votes after), the Broad Front 3 (Montevideo — Mario Bergara; Canelones — Francisco Legnani; Río Negro), the Colorado Party Rivera and the Republican Coalition Salto (by the reports) |
| Constitution and rights | The constitution of 1967 (the sixth since 1830) — the reforms by plebiscite: the pensions' indexation (1989), the separate votes (1994), the runoff and the primaries (1996), the water as a human right and the state's water monopoly (31 October 2004); the rights: the free press (the Press Law of 2009 decriminalizing the defamation of officials), the divorce by the wife's sole will (1913), the women's vote (1932 law; first used in the Cerro Chato plebiscite of 3 July 1927 — the first women's vote of South America), the abortion (2012), the same-sex marriage (Law 19,075 of 2013), the cannabis (Law 19,172 of December 2013), the trans law (2018), the euthanasia (October 2025); Freedom House's 96 of 100 and the region's top press freedom ranks of the 2010s (the 2020s' fall of the ranks — both stated) |
| Military | The Armed Forces (about 21,000–22,000 active by the counts, both stated) — the National Army (about 14,000–15,000), the National Navy (the patrol ships and the coast guard; the Spanish Cardama offshore patrol ships' contract of 2023 rescinded by the Orsi government in 2025 over the guarantees, by the reports), the Uruguayan Air Force (the A-29 Super Tucanos and the C-130s); the Ministry of National Defense (Sandra Lazo); the UN peacekeeping — among the highest contributors per person of the world (the Congo's MONUSCO since 2001 — the soldier killed by the M23 rebels in January 2025 — the Golan's UNDOF, the Sinai's MFO); the conscription none (the volunteer force); the Antarctic base Artigas (1984) on King George Island |
| Foreign relations | The Mercosur founder (1991; the secretariat at Montevideo; the bloc's free trade agreements — EFTA signed on 16 September 2025; the European Union's partnership agreement ratified by Uruguay on 26 February 2026 and in force from 1 May 2026, by the reports), CELAC's pro tempore presidency (from 21 February 2026), the CPTPP application (1 December 2022), China (the top customer — about 26% of the exports; Orsi's visit and the 11 agreements of 3 February 2026), the United States (the 10% tariff of 2025; the beef tariff waiver given to Brazil and Paraguay but not Uruguay on 28 August 2026 by the reports), Argentina (Milei's government; the green hydrogen plant of Paysandú's dispute and its talks of 2026), Brazil (Lula's partnership); the Falklands — Uruguay backs Argentina's sovereignty claim while Britain holds the islands and the islanders' self-determination (both stated, LAW 2); Venezuela — neither Maduro's 2024 victory nor González's recognized (March 2025) |
| Police and security | The Ministry of the Interior (Carlos Negro) and the National Police (about 30,000 officers; the Republican Guard and the National Directorate of Police Information); the homicides about 370–390 a year in 2022–2025 (about 11 per 100,000 — the 'epidemic rates' of the minister's words of 2025), 195 in January–June 2026 against 183 a year before (+6.6%; three in four by firearms; the Montevideo and Canelones drug-gang killings — by the reports), down 6.7% from March 2025 to February 2026 by the ministry's count (both periods stated); the drug trafficker Sebastián Marset captured at Santa Cruz in Bolivia on 13 February 2026 and flown to the United States the same day (by the reports); the prisons' overcrowding (the INR — the National Rehabilitation Institute; the parliamentary commissioner's reports) |
| Elections | The national elections of 27 October 2024 (the first round; the Broad Front about 44% of the votes, the National Party about 27%, the Colorado Party about 16%; the plebiscites on the social security reform and on the night raids both failing at about 39–40%) and the runoff of 24 November 2024 (Orsi 49.8% to Delgado 45.9% of the votes cast; about 52.0% to 48.0% of the valid votes — both stated); the turnout about 89–90% (the compulsory vote); the primaries of 30 June 2024 (voluntary); the departmental elections of 11 May 2025; the next national election on 28 October 2029 and the departmental ones in May 2030 |
| The politics of 2024–26 in dates | 27 Oct 2024 the first round and the two plebiscites' failure; 24 Nov 2024 Orsi wins the runoff; Feb 2025 the Housing designate Cecilia Cairo resigns over her unpaid property taxes; 1 Mar 2025 Orsi and Cosse sworn in; 11 May 2025 the departmental elections; 13 May 2025 José Mujica dies at 89; 13 Aug 2025 the Chamber passes the euthanasia bill; 4 Sep 2025 the World Cup qualification (3–0 over Peru); 28 Sep 2025 the attack on the Attorney General's home; 15 Oct 2025 the euthanasia law passes the Senate; 3 Feb 2026 Orsi meets Xi Jinping; 13 Feb 2026 Marset captured in Bolivia; 21 Feb 2026 CELAC's presidency; 26 Feb 2026 the EU–Mercosur agreement ratified; 1 May 2026 it enters into force; Jun 2026 the World Cup's group exit; 12 Jul 2026 Diego Forlán named the national coach; 24 Sep 2026 Orsi at the UN; 29 Sep 2026 five shipping lines' warning over the port dispute (by the reports) |
| Current issues | The economy's slowdown (the second quarter's −0.5% year on year after the drought's soybean losses; the 2026 growth forecasts of about 1.0–1.2%), the fiscal deficit (about 4.4% of GDP in the 12 months to July 2026 by the reports) and the debt (the 65% anchor of the fiscal rule), the Montevideo container port's labor dispute (the TCP terminal of Katoen Natie; over 35 days of disruption in 2026 by the shipping lines' count), the homicides and the drug gangs, the prisons, the child poverty, the social security dialogue (2025–26), the drinking-water project (the Arazatí plant replaced by the Casupá dam plan, by the reports), the green hydrogen of Paysandú and Argentina's objections, the U.S. beef tariffs, the 2030 World Cup's centenary match at the Centenario; the government's approval of about 28% by one August 2026 poll (by the reports) |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$85 billion in 2025 (US$85.3 billion by the relays; about US$80–82 billion in 2024 by the IMF's lines — both stated) — about 0.08% of the world's, about 1/45 of India's; about US$25,000 a head (the highest of South America by most counts, Chile's close) — the World Bank's high-income economy since 2013; the 2026 output's flat path (the forecasts of about 1.0% growth by the economists' survey, 1.2% by others — both stated) |
|---|---|
| GDP (PPP) | About US$120–135 billion by purchasing power (the IMF's and the World Bank's lines of 2025–26, both stated) — about US$35,000–38,000 a head; South America's top two with Chile; the cost of living the region's highest (Montevideo and Punta del Este among Latin America's dearest cities — the 'expensive Uruguay' of the Argentine visitors' complaint when the peso is strong) |
| Growth and inflation | The growth about 0.4% in 2023 (the drought), about 3.1% in 2024 and about 2% in 2025 by the estimates; the second quarter of 2026 −0.8% on the quarter and −0.5% on the year (the farm output −22.2% after the drought; the manufacturing +1.9% with the pulp, the construction +4.2% — by the reports); the inflation of 4.68% in the 12 months to September 2026 (0.54% in the month; 4.21% in the year to date) — within the 3–6% band for six months after the dip below it in March 2026, against the 4.5% target; about 3.2–3.8% in the spring of 2026 and about 8–9% in 2022 (both years' figures stated) |
| Monetary policy and the peso | The Banco Central del Uruguay (1967; President Guillermo Tolosa since 24 March 2025) — the inflation targeting with the monetary policy rate (TPM; the switch to the rate from the money aggregates of 2020); the cuts of 2025–26 (9.25% to 7.5%, 6.5% and 5.75% by March 2026) and the holds of 1 July and 18 August 2026 at 5.75%; the target of 4.5% in the 3–6% band; the peso free-floating (about 40 to the U.S. dollar in September 2026 — 40.214 on 24 September by the reports; about 39–44 over 2025–26), no currency-market intervention since 2021 by the bank's line (1 September 2026's mark); the dollarization of the savings (about 70% of the deposits); the 'de-dollarization' policy's push of the peso bonds |
| Public finances | The fiscal deficit about 4.4% of GDP in the 12 months to July 2026 and the central government's net debt about 57.6% of GDP in June 2026 (by the reports), the fiscal rule's debt anchor of 65% (the 2020 rule of the Lacalle Pou government kept by Orsi's); the investment grade of all three agencies since 2012–2013 (BBB to Baa1 and BBB+ by the agencies — the region's best after Chile's); the peso bonds and the sustainability-linked bond of 2022 (the world's first with the interest tied to the climate targets, by the finance ministry's line); the tax system — the VAT of 22% (10% reduced), the personal income tax (IRPF) of 0–36%, the corporate tax (IRAE) of 25%; the 2025–2029 budget's minimum global tax for the multinationals |
| Structure and labor | Services about 60–65% of GDP (the trade, the finance, the transport, the IT and the software — the region's top exporter of software per person, the business services of the free zones), industry about 20–25% (the pulp, the meat-packing, the dairy, the oil refinery), the farm sector about 6–8% (both shares by the year's base, stated); the workforce about 1.8 million; the unemployment about 7.0–7.1% (mid-2026 by the reports); the employment rate about 59–60%; the wage councils (the tripartite bargaining since 1943, restored in 2005); the PIT-CNT union center (about 400,000 members); the real wages' growth of about 5.7% a year to July 2026 nominally by the reports |
| Trade | The goods exports about US$13.5 billion in 2025 (US$13.49 billion — the decade's high, by the reports): the beef about US$2.7 billion (the record; about 20%), the pulp about US$2.3 billion (−9%), the soybeans about US$1.4 billion, the dairy about US$0.9 billion, the rice, the wood, the wool, the malt, the cars' parts, the electricity to Argentina and Brazil; the services exports of the software and the tourism; the buyers — China (about 26%), Brazil, the European Union, the United States, Argentina; the imports of the oil, the cars, the machines and the chemicals; the free zones (Zonamerica of 1990, the pulp mills' zones, Colonia's, Jacinto Vera's) about a third of the goods exports by the counts; the EU–Mercosur agreement from 1 May 2026 (by the reports) |
| Agriculture | The cattle about 11–12 million head (about 3.3 for each Uruguayan; the world's first national traceability of every animal, compulsory since 2006 — the ear tags and the database), the sheep about 6 million (from about 26 million in 1991; the merino wool's exports), the soybean (about 1.0–1.2 million hectares; the 2026 drought's losses), the rice (the irrigated fields of the east — about 90–95% exported, among the world's top-ten rice exporters), the wheat, the barley (the malt for Brazil's beer), the maize, the citrus, the grapes (the tannat wine), the dairy (about 2 billion liters a year of milk), the honey, the forestry plantations (about 1.1 million hectares of eucalyptus and pine since the forestry law of 1987) |
| Industry | The pulp — UPM of Finland's mills at Fray Bentos (2007; the Botnia mill of the Argentina dispute) and at Pueblo Centenario near Paso de los Toros (2023; about 2.1 million metric tons a year — the largest private investment of the country's history, about US$3 billion by the company's line, both figures stated), Montes del Plata (2014; Conchillas, Colonia — Arauco and Stora Enso), the meat-packing plants (frigoríficos — Minerva of Brazil, Marfrig, the Chinese-owned), the dairy co-op Conaprole (1936), the ANCAP La Teja oil refinery (1937), the malt, the beverages, the pharmaceuticals, the software (the IT exports about US$1–2 billion by the counts; dLocal of 2016 — the first Uruguayan unicorn and the Nasdaq listing of 2021) |
| Tourism | About 3.6 million visitors in 2025 and about US$2.0 billion of spending (by the reports) — the Argentines about 2.4 million (two-thirds), the Brazilians, the Uruguayans from abroad, the Europeans and the cruise passengers; Punta del Este (the summer of the Argentine and the Brazilian elite, José Ignacio, La Barra), Montevideo, Colonia del Sacramento, the hot springs of Salto and Paysandú (Daymán, Arapey), the Atlantic coast of Rocha (Cabo Polonio, Punta del Diablo, La Paloma), the wine tourism of Canelones and Maldonado, the estancias; the January–February high season and the Tourism Week |
| Energy | The electricity about 92–98% renewable by the year's rain (both stated; the 2008–2015 energy transformation of Ramón Méndez's policy) — the hydropower of Salto Grande (1979; 1,890 MW shared with Argentina) and of the Río Negro dams (Rincón del Bonete, Baygorria, Palmar), the wind (about 1,500 MW — about 30–40% of the power, among the world's highest shares), the biomass of the pulp mills, the solar; the state's UTE (1912) the grid's owner; the exports of the power to Argentina and Brazil; the oil all imported (ANCAP's La Teja refinery; the José Ignacio buoy), no own oil or gas; the green hydrogen plans (HIF Global's e-fuels plant of Paysandú, the H2U program), the electric buses of Montevideo and the charging network of UTE |
| Banks and markets | The Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay (BROU; 1896 — the state's commercial bank, about 40–45% of the deposits), the private banks (Santander, Itaú, BBVA, Scotiabank, HSBC, Banque Heritage), the state's mortgage bank (BHU); the 2002 banking crisis (the run on the deposits of about 40–45%, the bank holiday of 30 July – 2 August 2002, the US Treasury's bridge loan of US$1.5 billion) and the recovery; the banking secrecy eased by the tax-transparency laws of 2011–2017 (the OECD's gray-to-white move); the Montevideo Stock Exchange (BVM; 1867) small, the peso and the dollar bonds the market's core; the fintech of dLocal and Prex |
| Infrastructure projects | The Ferrocarril Central (the 273 km Montevideo–Paso de los Toros railway rebuilt for UPM's pulp — about US$1 billion and more by the counts, opened in 2024 after the delays), the UPM pulp mill (2023), the Montevideo port's TCP terminal expansion (Katoen Natie; the concession extended to 2081 by the 2021 deal — the opposition's 'monopoly' charge and the government's 'investment' line both stated, LAW 2), the drinking-water supply (the Arazatí project of the previous government replaced by the Casupá dam on the Santa Lucía by the Orsi government, by the reports), the Google data center at the Science Park of Canelones (under way from 2024 by the reports), the wind and the solar parks, the roads' public–private contracts, the Antel Arena (2018) |
| Poverty and inequality | The poverty about 17% of the people by the INE's income line in 2024–25 (from about 40% in 2004 — the post-crisis peak — and about 8–9% in 2017, the pandemic's rise — both endpoints stated), about one in three children under six poor; the extreme poverty about 0.3%; the Gini about 0.38–0.40; the social programs — the Plan de Equidad (2008), the family allowances (AFAM), the food card of the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES; 2005); the informal settlements (asentamientos) about 600 with about 200,000 people by the counts (both stated) |
| Economic history in brief | The cattle of the vaquerías (17th century) and the salted beef (the saladeros) of the colonial and the 19th-century trade; the wool and the frozen beef boom of 1870–1914 (the British railways, the Liebig's meat extract of Fray Bentos); the Batllista welfare state of the 1900s–1950s (the state firms — BROU, UTE, ANCAP, the pensions) and the 'Switzerland of America'; the stagnation from 1955, the inflation of the 1960s (the 1968 wage-price freeze), the military's liberalization and the 1982 'tablita' crash; Mercosur (1991); the 1999–2002 recession and the 2002 crisis (GDP about −11% in 2002 by the counts); the 2004–2014 commodity boom (about 5% a year); the investment grade (2012–13); the pulp and the renewables' decade; the pandemic's −6.3% of 2020 (by the counts) and the recovery |
Transport
| Roads | About 8,700 km of national roads (the Ministry of Transport and Public Works; about 77,000 km in all with the departments' rural roads by the counts) — the Ruta Interbalnearia (Montevideo–Punta del Este), the Ruta 1 (Montevideo–Colonia), the Ruta 3 (to Salto and Bella Unión), the Ruta 5 (Montevideo–Rivera; the double road to Durazno), the Ruta 8 (to Melo), the Ruta 9 (to Chuy), the Ruta 26 (the east–west road of the north); the tolls of the national roads (the electronic Telepeaje); the cars about 1.4–1.6 million by the counts; the road deaths about 400–450 a year (the national road safety unit UNASEV's counts) |
|---|---|
| Rail | The State Railways Administration (AFE; 1952 — the British-built Central Uruguay Railway of 1867–1949 nationalized) — about 1,600 km of lines, the freight of the pulp, the wood, the cement and the grains; the Ferrocarril Central (Montevideo port–Paso de los Toros; 273 km rebuilt for UPM, the freight trains from 2024); the passenger services closed in 1988 and the brief commuter trains of the 1990s–2010s (Montevideo–Progreso, 25 de Agosto, Rivera's); the Montevideo Central Station of 1897 (the closed General Artigas station) and its 2003 replacement; no high-speed or urban rail |
| Montevideo transit | The metropolitan bus system (STM — the Sistema de Transporte Metropolitano; the cooperative and the private companies CUTCSA, COETC, UCOT and COME; about 1,500 buses — the electric buses' fleet growing from 2020), the bus corridors of the Avenida Garzón and the General Flores, the interdepartmental buses from the Tres Cruces terminal (1994), the taxis and the ride apps (Uber since 2015 after the legal fight); no metro, tram or trolleybus (the trolleybuses of 1951–1992); the national government's metropolitan transit plan of 2025–26 (the tunnel and the bus rapid transit under the Avenida 18 de Julio, by the reports) |
| Air | Carrasco International Airport (MVD; the Montevideo terminal of 2009 by the Uruguayan-born architect Rafael Viñoly; about 2 million passengers a year by the counts) and Punta del Este's Capitán Corbeta C. A. Curbelo (Laguna del Sauce; the summer's jets); no national flag carrier since PLUNA's collapse (5 July 2012; the airline of 1936) — the foreign airlines (LATAM, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Gol, Iberia, Air Europa, Copa, American); the third of Latin America in the international air passengers per person by one ranking of October 2026 (by the reports); the departments' small airfields of Salto, Rivera, Melo and Paysandú |
| Ports and waterways | The Port of Montevideo (the region's deep-water and free port — the free port law of 1987; the container terminals TCP of Katoen Natie and the Montecon of the past, the 2026 labor dispute's disruptions; about 1 million TEU a year by the counts), Nueva Palmira (the grains and the pulp barges at the Uruguay River's mouth; the Hidrovía Paraná–Paraguay's end), Fray Bentos (the pulp), Colonia (the Buenos Aires ferries), Punta del Este, La Paloma; the Río de la Plata ferries of Buquebus (Montevideo, Colonia — Buenos Aires; the fast ferries of the river) and Colonia Express (its second license stalled over the terminal in September 2026 by the reports); the Uruguay River's navigation to Salto and Paysandú; the Martín García canal's dredging with Argentina |
| Energy and utilities | The state's utilities — UTE (1912; the electricity, about 100% coverage), OSE (1952; the water and the sewerage — the 2004 constitutional water monopoly), ANTEL (1974; the telephones and the internet — the fiber to the home), ANCAP (1931; the fuels, the alcohol and the cement); the 1992 referendum's rejection of the state companies' sale and the 2003 referendum against the ANCAP partnership; the national grid's links to Argentina (Salto Grande) and Brazil (the Melo–Candiota line of 2015 and the Rivera converter); the electricity prices the region's high |
| Border crossings and bridges | To Argentina: the General San Martín bridge (Fray Bentos–Puerto Unzué; 1976 — blockaded by the Gualeguaychú protesters over the pulp mill in 2006–2010), the General Artigas bridge (Paysandú–Colón; 1975), the Salto Grande dam's road and rail crossing (Salto–Concordia; 1982), the ferries of the Río de la Plata; to Brazil: the Barón de Mauá bridge (Río Branco–Jaguarão; 1930), the Quaraí bridge (Artigas–Quaraí), the Bella Unión–Barra do Quaraí bridge, the open land frontier of Rivera–Santana do Livramento (the Plaza Internacional) and Chuy–Chuí (the avenue that is the border), Aceguá; the second Río Branco–Jaguarão bridge of the 2020s' plan |
History in dates
| c. 11,000 BCE – 1500 CE | The first hunters of the grassland (the Pay Paso and the Catalán sites of the north; about 11,000–13,000 years ago by the dates), the cerritos de indios (the earth mounds of the eastern wetlands from about 5,000 years ago — the mound builders' villages of the Laguna Merín basin), the peoples of the contact — the Charrúa (the nomadic hunters of the south and the center), the Minuán, the Bohán, the Yaro, the Chaná of the rivers and the Guaraní of the north's forests (the farmers and the canoe people) |
|---|---|
| 1516 – 1680 | Juan Díaz de Solís enters the Río de la Plata and is killed on its shore (1516); Magellan's fleet anchors off the Cerro (1520 — the 'Monte vide eu' legend); Sebastian Cabot's fort of San Salvador on the Uruguay River (1527); the cattle and the horses let loose on the Banda Oriental by Hernandarias, the Governor of Asunción (1611 and 1617) — the wild herds of the vaquerías; the Jesuit missions of the north (the Yapeyú's ranches); the Banda Oriental a no man's land between Spain and Portugal |
| 1680 – 1750 | The Portuguese found Colonia do Sacramento opposite Buenos Aires (1680; the smuggling port taken and returned by the treaties of 1681, 1705–1715, 1735–37); Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, the Governor of Buenos Aires, drives the Portuguese from the bay of Montevideo (1723–1724) and founds San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo (the fort of 1724; the settlers from Buenos Aires and the Canary Islands, 1726 — the founding act of 24 December 1726); the Cabildo of Montevideo (1730); the Charrúa wars of the frontier |
| 1750 – 1806 | The Treaty of Madrid (1750; Colonia for the Seven Missions — the Guaraní war of 1754–56) and the Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777; Colonia to Spain for good); Montevideo the Spanish navy's South Atlantic base (the Apostadero of 1776) in the new Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776); the walls and the Citadel (1741–1780s), the fortresses of Santa Teresa (1762) and San Miguel; the leather and the salted beef's trade; the Montevideo Cathedral (1790–1804) and the Cabildo (1804) |
| 1806 – 1811 | The British invasions of the Río de la Plata: Montevideo stormed by Sir Samuel Auchmuty (3 February 1807) and held to September 1807 (the city's first newspaper, the British 'Southern Star'); the Junta of Montevideo (21 September 1808; the loyalty to Spain's Ferdinand VII); Buenos Aires's May Revolution (25 May 1810) and Montevideo's royalist stand under Francisco Javier de Elío |
| 1811 – 1820 | José Gervasio Artigas (1764–1850) leads the rural revolt (the Grito de Asencio of 28 February 1811) and wins the Battle of Las Piedras (18 May 1811); the 'Exodus of the Oriental People' (the Redota — about 16,000 followers to the Ayuí camp, October 1811); the Instructions of the Year XIII (1813 — the federal republic's program); the Federal League of the Free Peoples (1815; Artigas the 'Protector'), the land regulation of 1815; the Portuguese–Brazilian invasion (1816; Montevideo taken on 20 January 1817); Artigas's defeat at Tacuarembó (22 January 1820) and his exile to Paraguay (September 1820; his death there in 1850) |
| 1821 – 1830 | The Cisplatine Province of the Portuguese (1821) and of the Empire of Brazil (1822); the Thirty-Three Orientals of Juan Antonio Lavalleja land at La Agraciada (19 April 1825); the Florida Assembly's declaration of independence and union with the United Provinces (25 August 1825); the Battles of Rincón and Sarandí (1825); the Argentine–Brazilian War (1825–1828); the Preliminary Peace Convention (27 August 1828; Lord Ponsonby's British mediation — the independent buffer state); the constitution sworn on 18 July 1830 |
| 1830 – 1838 | Fructuoso Rivera the first constitutional president (1830–1834); the Salsipuedes massacre of the Charrúa (11 April 1831 — the ambush at the Salsipuedes stream; four survivors sent to Paris and shown in 1833 — the state's killing of the native people, the 'pacification' of the old official line and the 'genocide' of the descendants' and the historians' line both stated, LAW 2); Manuel Oribe's presidency (1835–1838); the Battle of Carpintería (19 September 1836 — the first use of the white and the red emblems of the Blancos and the Colorados, the two parties' birth) |
| 1839 – 1851 | The Guerra Grande (the Great War, 1839–1851) — Oribe's Blancos with Juan Manuel de Rosas's Buenos Aires against Rivera's Colorados with the Brazilian, the French and the British support and the Argentine exiles; the Siege of Montevideo (16 February 1843 – 8 October 1851; 'the new Troy' of Alexandre Dumas's book; Giuseppe Garibaldi's Italian Legion); the two governments (the Defense at Montevideo, the Cerrito of Oribe); the peace of 8 October 1851 ('neither victors nor vanquished'); the treaties with Brazil (1851) fixing the northern border |
| 1852 – 1875 | The caudillos' wars; the Quinteros massacre (1858); Venancio Flores's 'Liberating Crusade' (1863–1865) with Brazil's and Bartolomé Mitre's backing — the siege of Paysandú (December 1864 – January 1865) and the fall of the Blanco government; the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay (1864/65–1870; Uruguay with Brazil and Argentina); Flores murdered (19 February 1868); the Liebig's meat extract factory at Fray Bentos (1865); the Revolution of the Lances (1870–1872) and the coparticipation pact |
| 1876 – 1903 | The militarism of Lorenzo Latorre (1876–1880; the wire fences, the rural code, the police's order) and Máximo Santos; José Pedro Varela's school reform (the Law of Common Education, 1877); the British railways (the Central Uruguay Railway; Montevideo–Rivera by 1892) and the frozen meat; the immigrants of Spain and Italy; Juan Idiarte Borda assassinated (25 August 1897); Aparicio Saravia's Blanco revolution of 1897 (the Pact of La Cruz) |
| 1903 – 1916 | José Batlle y Ordóñez's presidencies (1903–1907, 1911–1915) — the civil war of 1904 (the Battle of Masoller, 1 September 1904; Saravia's death) and the end of the Blanco caudillos' risings; the death penalty abolished (1907), the divorce law (1907; by the wife's sole will 1913), the eight-hour day (1915), the state's firms (the BROU state bank of 1911, UTE of 1912, the Mortgage Bank), the free secondary schools in every department (1912), the pensions, the women's university; the 'Batllismo' of the model country |
| 1916 – 1933 | The constitution of 1918 (the plural executive with the National Council of Administration; the church and the state separated, 1919); the Cerro Chato plebiscite (3 July 1927 — the first women's vote of South America); the Olympic football golds of Paris (1924) and Amsterdam (1928); the first FIFA World Cup at the new Estadio Centenario (13–30 July 1930; 4–2 over Argentina in the final) for the constitution's centenary; the Great Depression; Gabriel Terra's self-coup (31 March 1933; former president Baltasar Brum's suicide in protest the same day) |
| 1933 – 1945 | Terra's dictatorship and the constitution of 1934 (the women's vote in national elections from 1938, by the 1932 law); the Battle of the River Plate (13 December 1939) — the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in Montevideo's port and scuttled by its crew off the city on 17 December 1939; Alfredo Baldomir's 'good coup' (1942) and the constitution of 1942; the break with the Axis (25 January 1942) and the declaration of war (February 1945); the wool and the meat's war boom |
| 1945 – 1958 | Luis Batlle Berres and the neo-Batllismo (1947–1951; the import-substitution industries, the welfare state); the Maracanazo (16 July 1950 — 2–1 over Brazil at Rio's Maracanã before about 200,000; the second World Cup); the constitution of 1952 (the nine-member National Council of Government — the colegiado — in place of the president, 1952–1967); the Korean War's wool boom and its end (1953–55); the 1958 election — the Blancos' first national victory in 93 years |
| 1959 – 1967 | The Blanco governments of the colegiado (1959–1967); the floods of April 1959 (the Río Negro's dams in danger, the evacuation of the interior); the stagnation and the inflation; the Tupamaros (the National Liberation Movement — MLN-T; Raúl Sendic's sugar workers' march of 1962 and the urban guerrilla from about 1965); the 1966 plebiscite restoring the single president (the constitution of 1967); Óscar Gestido (1 March 1967) and his death (6 December 1967); Jorge Pacheco Areco's presidency |
| 1968 – 1973 | Pacheco's emergency security measures (June 1968) and the wage freeze; the student Líber Arce killed by the police (14 August 1968); the Tupamaros' kidnappings (Dan Mitrione killed on 10 August 1970; the British ambassador Geoffrey Jackson held in 1971) and the Punta Carretas prison escape (6 September 1971 — about 106 Tupamaros); the Broad Front founded (5 February 1971; Líber Seregni); Juan María Bordaberry's election (28 November 1971 — the narrow count over Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, the fraud claims of the Blancos and the Electoral Court's result both stated, LAW 2); the 'internal war' of 1972; the coup of 27 June 1973 (the General Assembly dissolved; the general strike of 15 days) |
| 1973 – 1985 | The civic-military dictatorship (1973–1985) — the political prisoners about 5,000–6,000 at the peak and many more held over the years (among the highest rates per person of the world by the usual line), about 190–200 Uruguayans disappeared (most in Argentina, under Operation Condor) by the state's and the human rights groups' counts (both stated, LAW 2), the exile of about 300,000–400,000 by the estimates; Bordaberry removed (1976) for Aparicio Méndez; the 1980 plebiscite rejecting the military's constitution (30 November 1980; about 57% 'No'); the Obelisk rally (27 November 1983); the Naval Club Pact (August 1984); the election of 25 November 1984 (Julio María Sanguinetti) |
| 1985 – 1994 | Sanguinetti's presidency (1 March 1985; the political prisoners' amnesty of 8 March 1985); the Expiry Law (the Ley de Caducidad of 22 December 1986 — the state's punitive claim against the military and the police waived) upheld in the referendum of 16 April 1989 (about 57% for keeping it; the 'peace' line and the 'impunity' line both stated, LAW 2); Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera (1990–1995); Mercosur's Treaty of Asunción (26 March 1991); the referendum of 13 December 1992 against the state firms' sale; the peso uruguayo (1 March 1993) |
| 1995 – 2002 | Sanguinetti's second term (1995–2000); the constitutional reform of 1996 (the runoff, the single candidates of the parties, the separate departmental elections); Jorge Batlle (2000–2005) and the Peace Commission (2000–2003 — the disappeared's fates); the foot-and-mouth outbreak (2001); the Argentine contagion and the banking crisis of 2002 (the deposit run, the bank holiday of 30 July – 2 August, the US Treasury's US$1.5 billion bridge loan, the GDP's fall of about 11% and the poverty's rise toward 40%) |
| 2003 – 2009 | The recovery; the referendum against the ANCAP partnership (December 2003); the water plebiscite (31 October 2004); Tabaré Vázquez elected in the first round (31 October 2004; about 50.5%) — the Broad Front's first government (1 March 2005); the social emergency plan and MIDES (2005); the smoke-free law (1 March 2006); the Botnia pulp mill dispute with Argentina (the Gualeguaychú bridge blockade from 2006; the mill opened in November 2007); Plan Ceibal (2007); the health reform (SNIS, 2007); the second Expiry Law plebiscite failing (25 October 2009; about 48%) |
| 2009 – 2014 | José Mujica elected (29 November 2009) and sworn in (1 March 2010) — the 'world's poorest president' of his farm and his old car; the International Court of Justice's Pulp Mills judgment (20 April 2010 — Uruguay's procedural breach found, the mill's operation allowed); the World Cup's fourth place (2010; Forlán's Golden Ball) and the 15th Copa América (2011); the Expiry Law's effect ended by Law 18,831 (October 2011); the abortion law (October 2012), the same-sex marriage (April 2013), the regulated cannabis market (December 2013 — the world's first national one); The Economist's 'country of the year' (2013); Vázquez elected again (30 November 2014) |
| 2015 – 2019 | Vázquez's second term (2015–2020); the Philip Morris arbitration won (8 July 2016); the UPM deal for the second pulp mill and the Ferrocarril Central (2017); the new criminal procedure (1 November 2017); the trans law (October 2018); the army commander Guido Manini Ríos dismissed (March 2019) and his Cabildo Abierto's entry; the 2019 election — Luis Lacalle Pou wins the runoff of 24 November 2019 by about 37,000 votes over Daniel Martínez (about 50.8% to 49.2% of the valid votes) |
| 2020 – 2022 | Lacalle Pou sworn in (1 March 2020) with the 'Multicolor Coalition'; the first COVID cases (13 March 2020) — the 'responsible freedom' without a lockdown, the early success and the 2021 wave (about 7,600 deaths in all by the official count); the Law of Urgent Consideration (the LUC; July 2020) and the referendum of 27 March 2022 keeping its 135 articles (about 50% 'No' to about 49% 'Yes' — both shares stated); the passport given to the drug trafficker Sebastián Marset in Dubai (2021) and its scandal; the arrest of the President's security chief Alejandro Astesiano (25 September 2022) |
| 2023 | The worst drought in about 70 years — Montevideo's salty tap water (May–August) and the water emergency of 19 June 2023; the UPM Paso de los Toros pulp mill's start (2023); the pension reform (May 2023; the age from 60 to 65); the census (the count of 2023; 3,444,263); the Marset passport affair's resignations — the Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo and the Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber (October–November 2023); the Ferrocarril Central's completion work |
| 2024 | The Ferrocarril Central's freight trains (2024); the floods of May 2024 on the Uruguay River and the Río Negro; the Copa América's third place in the United States under Marcelo Bielsa (July 2024); Luis Suárez's farewell to the national team (6 September 2024); the primaries (30 June), the general election and the two failed plebiscites (27 October), the runoff won by Yamandú Orsi (24 November 2024) |
| 2025 | Orsi and Carolina Cosse sworn in (1 March 2025); the departmental elections (11 May); José Mujica dies (13 May 2025, aged 89); the polar cold wave (June; seven dead by the reports); the BRICS summit's guest at Rio (July); the World Cup qualification (4 September 2025; 3–0 over Peru at the Centenario); Mercosur's free trade agreement with EFTA (16 September); the attack on the Attorney General Mónica Ferrero's home (28 September; by the reports); the euthanasia law (the Senate's vote of 15 October 2025); the 2025–2029 budget law |
| 2026 (January – June) | Orsi's state visit to China (29 January – 8 February; Xi Jinping and the 11 agreements of 3 February); Sebastián Marset captured in Bolivia and flown to the United States (13 February; by the reports); CELAC's pro tempore presidency taken at the summit in Colombia (21 February); the EU–Mercosur agreement ratified (26 February) and in force (1 May); the policy rate cut to 5.75% (March); the drought's soybean losses; the World Cup in North America — 1–1 with Saudi Arabia, 2–2 with Cape Verde (21 June, Miami) and 0–1 to Spain: out in the group stage, the only South American side not to advance (by the reports); Bielsa's resignation (30 June – 1 July) |
| 2026 (July – October) | The policy rate held at 5.75% (1 July and 18 August); Diego Forlán named the national coach to March 2027 (12 July; with the under-20s); the half-year's 195 homicides, up 6.6% (21 July by the reports); the minimum wage of 25,383 pesos (1 July); the second quarter's GDP −0.5% on the year; the U.S. beef tariff waiver given to Brazil and Paraguay but not Uruguay (28 August); the central bank's five years without a currency intervention (1 September); the talks with Argentina on the Paysandú green hydrogen plant (September); Orsi's UN address (24 September); the shipping lines' warning over the port dispute (29 September); the September inflation of 4.68% (5 October 2026) |
Records
| The presidents and the leaders | Fructuoso Rivera the first constitutional president (1830); José Batlle y Ordóñez (1903–07, 1911–15) the welfare state's builder; the colegiado's 15 years without a president (1952–1967); Julio María Sanguinetti (1985–90, 1995–2000) and Tabaré Vázquez (2005–10, 2015–20) the two-term presidents of the democracy; José Mujica (2010–15) the former guerrilla held for about 13 years and the 'poorest president'; Yamandú Orsi (2025) the 43rd by the official list; Carolina Cosse among the few women vice presidents (after Lucía Topolansky, 2017–2020, and Beatriz Argimón, 2020–2025) — no woman president yet |
|---|---|
| The wars and the crises in dates | The British invasion (1807), Artigas's revolution (1811–1820), the Brazilian rule (1817–1828), the Guerra Grande and the Siege of Montevideo (1839–1851; about 8½ years), the Paraguayan War (1864/65–1870), the civil wars of 1897 and 1904, the Graf Spee (December 1939), the Tupamaros and the coup (1963–1973), the dictatorship (1973–1985), the banking crisis (2002), the pulp mill dispute (2005–2010), the drought and the water crisis (2023) |
| The firsts of the state | The first women's vote of South America (Cerro Chato, 3 July 1927); the first FIFA World Cup host and winner (1930); the first of Latin America's divorce laws by the wife's will (1913) and the eight-hour day (1915) by the usual line; the first national state to regulate the whole cannabis market (2013); the first of South America's smoke-free laws (2006) and the plain-cigarette-pack victory over Philip Morris (2016); the laptop for every schoolchild (Plan Ceibal, 2007); the first legislated euthanasia of Latin America (2025); the only country to have renamed Christmas and Holy Week by law (1919) by the usual line |
| The rights' firsts | The death penalty abolished in 1907 (among the world's first states); the women's university and the free secondary schools (1912); the abortion law (2012), the same-sex marriage (2013; the second of Latin America after Argentina), the trans law (2018); the Afro-descendants' affirmative action law (2013); the Uruguayan Sign Language law (2001); the lowest perceived corruption of Latin America with Chile (Transparency International's index of about 73–76 in the 2020s, both stated) |
| The football's records | Two World Cups (1930, 1950) — the smallest nation to win the World Cup; two Olympic golds (1924, 1928); 15 Copa América titles (the record shared to 2021; Argentina's 16th of 2024 after); the Maracanazo's crowd of about 200,000 (the largest of a World Cup match by the usual line); the Estadio Centenario (FIFA's 'historical monument' of 1983); Luis Suárez's 69 international goals (the record) and Diego Godín's about 160 caps; Peñarol's five Copa Libertadores (1960, 1961, 1966, 1982, 1987) and Nacional's three (1971, 1980, 1988); the 2030 World Cup's centenary opening match set for Montevideo |
| The Olympic and other sports | The Olympic medals about 10 in all (the two football golds; the basketball bronzes of 1952 and 1956, the rowing, the boxing, the cycling's silver of 2000 by Milton Wynants); the rugby's Los Teros at five Rugby World Cups (1999, 2003, 2015, 2019, 2023; the wins over Spain, Georgia, Fiji and Namibia); the basketball's South American titles; the Vuelta Ciclista del Uruguay (1939); the tennis's Pablo Cuevas; the surf of La Paloma and Punta del Diablo; the Formula E's Punta del Este races (2014–2018) |
| The letters and the screen | The poets Delmira Agustini, Juana de Ibarbourou ('Juana de América') and Idea Vilariño; Horacio Quiroga's jungle tales; Juan Carlos Onetti (the Cervantes Prize of 1980); Mario Benedetti; Eduardo Galeano ('Open Veins of Latin America', 1971); Felisberto Hernández; Ida Vitale (the Cervantes Prize of 2018); the Montevideo-born French poets Lautréamont, Jules Laforgue and Jules Supervielle; the painters Joaquín Torres García (the 'inverted map' of 1943) and Pedro Figari; the films 'Whisky' (2004) and '25 Watts' (2001); Jorge Drexler's Oscar for the song of 'The Motorcycle Diaries' (2005 — the first Uruguayan Oscar) |
| The music and the carnival | The tango 'La Cumparsita' — composed by the Uruguayan Gerardo Matos Rodríguez (1916; the world's best-known tango by the usual line; the 'cultural and popular anthem' of Uruguay by the law of 1998); Carlos Gardel's birthplace — Tacuarembó by the Uruguayan claim and Toulouse by the French birth records' line (both stated, LAW 2); the candombe drums (UNESCO 2009) and the Llamadas; the murga's carnival of about 40 days (the world's longest by the usual line; the Teatro de Verano's contest); the rock of Los Shakers, the songs of Alfredo Zitarrosa, Rubén Rada, Jaime Roos and No Te Va Gustar |
| The cattle, the beef and the mate | About 3.3 cattle per person (about 11–12 million head) — among the world's highest; the first national traceability of all the cattle (2006); the beef consumption about 45–50 kg a person a year (the world's top with Argentina's, both counts stated) and the beef's record exports of about US$2.7 billion in 2025 (by the reports); the yerba mate's world record use per person (about 8–10 kg a year by the industry's counts); the Fray Bentos corned beef and Liebig's extract of the world's armies (1865–1979); the world's longest asado records of the Guinness lists at Montevideo (the 2008 and the 2014 grills by the reports) |
| The energy records | About 92–98% renewable electricity in most years (both stated) — among the world's highest shares; the wind's about 30–40% of the power (among the world's top three shares with Denmark's and Ireland's by the usual line); the 'energy transformation' of 2008–2015 (about US$7 billion of investment by the counts); Salto Grande (1979) the first binational dam of the River Plate basin; the electric bus and taxi fleets of Montevideo; no oil or gas found |
| The economic records | The highest GDP a head of South America by most counts (about US$25,000 in 2025, Chile's close); the investment grade of all three agencies since 2012–13; the largest private investment of the history — UPM's second pulp mill (about US$3 billion; 2023); the 2002 crisis's GDP fall of about 11% (the worst of the century); dLocal the first unicorn (2021's Nasdaq listing); the world's first sovereign sustainability-linked bond with the interest moving both ways (2022, by the finance ministry's line); the goods exports' decade high of about US$13.5 billion in 2025 (by the reports) |
| The land and the water | No point above about 520 m (Cerro Catedral, about 514 m); the Río de la Plata — about 220 km wide at its mouth (Punta del Este to Cabo San Antonio), the world's widest river estuary by the usual line; the Rincón del Bonete reservoir (about 1,070–1,140 km²; 1945); the Guaraní Aquifer (one of the world's largest, under the north with Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay); the Laguna Merín (about 3,750 km², shared); the Artigas amethyst geodes (among the world's largest) |
| The wildlife's records | The southern right whales off the Atlantic coast (July–November; the sanctuary of 2013), the sea lions and the fur seals of the Isla de Lobos (among the largest colonies of the South Atlantic), the Franciscana dolphin (the La Plata dolphin, the river's endangered small dolphin), the greater rhea, the pampas deer (the venado de campo; the El Tapado and the Los Ajos reserves), the capybara, the black-necked swans of the Laguna de Rocha, the butiá palm groves of Rocha (among the world's southernmost palm forests) |
| The small and the strange | The 'Eastern Republic' named after a river; the country's Christmas called 'Family Day' and its Holy Week 'Tourism Week' (1919); the colegiado's Swiss-style executive (1952–1967); the 'Switzerland of America'; the Graf Spee's scuttling off Montevideo (1939) and its raised eagle's long dispute; the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571's crash in the Andes (13 October 1972; the Old Christians rugby team — 16 survivors rescued after 72 days, 22–23 December 1972; the 'Society of the Snow' film of 2023); the Chuy and the Rivera border avenues where one side of the street is Brazil; Cabo Polonio's village without grid power |
| The disasters' marks | The floods of April 1959 (about 40,000 evacuated by the counts), the drought of 1988–89 and of 2022–23 (the water crisis of 2023), the yellow fever of Montevideo (1857), the cholera of 1867–68 and 1886–87, the Andes crash of 1972 (29 of 45 aboard dead), the Dolores tornado (15 April 2016; four to five dead by the counts), the Montevideo port's shipwrecks of the English Bank, the floods of May 2024, the polar wave of June 2025 (seven dead by the reports), the drought of 2026's soybean losses |
| The last and the next | The next general election on 28 October 2029 (the runoff on 25 November 2029 if needed) and the departmental ones in May 2030; Orsi's term to 1 March 2030; the 2030 World Cup's centenary opening match at the Estadio Centenario (the 100 years of 1930); Diego Forlán's coaching contract to March 2027; the Rendición de Cuentas effective on 1 January 2027 (by the reports); the next census in the 2030s; the October 2026 central bank decision and the third quarter's GDP in December 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Uruguay?
The Oriental Republic of Uruguay (República Oriental del Uruguay; the 'Eastern Republic of the Uruguay' — the land east of the Uruguay River) — the state of the Preliminary Peace Convention of 27 August 1828 between Argentina and Brazil (Britain's mediation) and of the constitution sworn on 18 July 1830; the Banda Oriental of the Spanish empire and the Cisplatine Province of the Portuguese and the Brazilian rule (1817–1828) before it; the demonym Uruguayan (oriental in the home usage); the UN's founding member (1945), Mercosur's founder (26 March 1991; the bloc's seat at Montevideo), the OAS's, ALADI's (the seat at Montevideo), the WTO's (1995), CELAC's pro tempore president from 21 February 2026.
What is the capital of Uruguay?
Montevideo — the capital, the chief port and the only large city, on the north shore of the Río de la Plata; the department of 1,302,954 people by the 2023 census (about 38% of the nation), the metropolitan area about 1.8–2.0 million with Canelones and San José (about half of the nation by the counts — both stated); founded by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala in 1724–1726; the Ciudad Vieja, the Palacio Salvo (1928), the Palacio Legislativo (1925), the Teatro Solís (1856), the Estadio Centenario (1930), the Rambla along the river; the seat of Mercosur's secretariat and ALADI. Canelones's Ciudad de la Costa, Salto and Paysandú the next towns.
How big is Uruguay, and how many people live there?
About 176,215 km² of land (68,037 sq mi; about 318,400 km² with the waters of the Río de la Plata, the Laguna Merín and the lakes) — the second-smallest state of South America after Suriname, about the size of Andhra Pradesh's two-thirds or of Odisha's 1.1 times, about 5.4% of India's area; 3,444,263 people counted by the 2023 census and 3,499,451 with the omission's adjustment (both stated; 3,286,314 in 2011) — about 19–20 per km², about 95% urban, the population nearly flat since the 2010s (the births below the deaths).
What are the highest and lowest points of Uruguay?
Cerro Catedral in the Sierra Carapé of Maldonado — about 514 m (513.66 m by the military survey's measure of 1973, which unseated the Cerro de las Ánimas of about 501 m — both heights stated); the Cuchilla Grande and the Cuchilla de Haedo the low ranges of the rolling grassland, no point above about 520 m; the lowest point the Atlantic Ocean and the Río de la Plata at sea level (0 m); Uruguay among the flattest states of the Americas.
What currency does Uruguay use?
The Uruguayan peso (UYU; $U; 100 centésimos) — the peso uruguayo of 1 March 1993 (one for 1,000 nuevos pesos; the nuevo peso of 1975 one for 1,000 old pesos before it); the free float of the Banco Central del Uruguay (1967; President Guillermo Tolosa since 24 March 2025), with no intervention in the currency market since 2021 by the bank's own line; about 40 pesos to the U.S. dollar (40.2 on 24 September 2026 by the reports), about 2.1–2.3 Indian rupees to the peso; the inflation target of 4.5% within a 3–6% band and the policy rate of 5.75% (held on 1 July and 18 August 2026); the Unidad Indexada (UI) of the inflation-linked contracts; the dollar's wide use in the property and the savings.
Who governs Uruguay?
President Yamandú Orsi — born 13 June 1967 in Canelones, the history teacher and the intendant of Canelones (2015–2024) of the Broad Front's Movement of Popular Participation (José Mujica's sector), elected in the runoff of 24 November 2024 over Álvaro Delgado of the National Party (49.8% to 45.9% of the votes cast; about 52% to 48% of the valid votes — both stated) and sworn in on 1 March 2025 for five years (no immediate reelection); Vice President Carolina Cosse (the Senate's and the General Assembly's president); the cabinet of 14 ministries (Economy Gabriel Oddone, Foreign Relations Mario Lubetkin, Interior Carlos Negro, Defense Sandra Lazo); the General Assembly of the Senate of 30 (the Broad Front 16) and the Chamber of Representatives of 99 (the Broad Front 48 — short of a majority); the next general election on 28 October 2029.
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