Brazilian Federal District

The **Federal District** ( ) is a part of Brazil, which is used to shelter Brasília, the federal capital. It is in the centre of the country.

## History

The capital of Brazil was transferred from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília on 21 April 1960 and its new territory, split off from state of Goiás on the border with the state of Minas Gerais, became the current Federal District. After the transfer the old Federal District, containing the city of Rio de Janeiro, became the state of Guanabara. This state existed from 1960 until 1975, when it merged with the state of Rio de Janeiro. With the merger the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro was transferred back from Niterói to Rio de Janeiro itself (as it had been until 1834 when the empire created the Neutral Municipality).

Originally, most of the people were local workers (called "Candangos"), who built the capital, and federal government workers who were sent to the new capital, Brasília. The capital is a planned city. It had areas built for homes, business, schools and other uses. Originally built for up to one million people, the city now has many more than one million people. Because of how the city was built, it has been hard for the city to grow. This has caused many people to live in cities around Brasília. A large percentage of the people of the Federal District live outside the city now.

## Flag

The white color is for peace. The green and yellow colors in the middle refer to the national colors of Brazil. The four yellow arrows are for the native people of Brazil. The arrows pointing into the four cardinal directions of the compass stands for the power moving out from the center. The yellow arrows also form a cross. This is a symbol of the Southern Cross carried by the explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral.

The flag was created by the poet Guilherme de Almeida, and was adopted by decree no. 1090 on August 25, 1969.

## Other websites

- Official homepage
- Informative Federal District page, with aeroplane view
- Feature article on CityMayors.com
- Distrito Federal at Google Maps
- Map of the Federal District

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Federal District
- **native name**: Distrito Federal
- **native name lang**: pt
- **settlement type**: Federal district
- **image flag**: Bandeira do Distrito Federal (Brasil).svg
- **image shield**: Brasão do Distrito Federal (Brasil).svg
- **motto**: _VENTVRIS VENTIS_
<small>"To the coming winds"</small>
- **image map**: Distrito Federal in Brazil.svg
- **map caption**: Location of Federal District in Brazil
- **subdivision type**: List of sovereign states, Country
- **subdivision name**: Brazil
- **seat type**: Seat of government
- **seat**: Brasília
- **leader title**: Governor (Brazil), Governor
- **leader name**: Rodrigo Rollemberg (Brazilian Socialist Party, PSB)
- **leader title1**: Vice Governor
- **leader name1**: Renato Santana (Social Democratic Party (Brazil, 2011), PSD)
- **leader title2**: Federal Senate, Senators
- **leader name2**: Cristovam Buarque (Popular Socialist Party (Brazil), PPS)
José Reguffe (Independent politician, I)
Hélio José (Republican Party of the Social Order, PROS)
- **unit pref**: Metric
- **area total km2**: 5802
- **area rank**: List of Brazilian states by area, 27th
- **population total**: 3,013,144
- **population as of**: February 2017
- **population rank**: List of Brazilian states by population, 20th
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population density rank**: List of Brazilian states by population density, 1st
- **population demonym**: Brasiliense
- **demographics type1**: Gross domestic product, GDP
- **demographics1 title1**: Year
- **demographics1 info1**: 2015 estimate
- **demographics1 title2**: Total
- **demographics1 info2**: US$116 billions(PPP) US$65 billions (List of Brazilian states by gross domestic product, 8th)
- **demographics1 title3**: Per capita
- **demographics1 info3**: US$38.549 (PPP)  US$21,779 (List of Brazilian states by gross domestic product, 1st)
- **demographics type2**: Human Development Index, HDI
- **demographics2 title1**: Year
- **demographics2 info1**: 2014
- **demographics2 title2**: Category
- **demographics2 info2**: 0.839  – <span style="color:#090">very high</span> (List of Brazilian federative units by Human Development Index, 1st)
- **postal code type**: Postal code
- **postal code**: 70000-000 to 73690-000
- **timezone1**: Time in Brazil, BRT
- **utc offset1**: −03:00
- **timezone1 dst**: Time in Brazil, BRST
- **utc offset1 dst**: −02:00
- **iso code**: ISO 3166-2:BR, BR-DF
- **website**: [http://www.df.gov.br/ df.gov.br]