5 Facts of Argentina

capital city-Buenos Aires

 Located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Andes Mountain Range, Argentina is the second largest country by land area in South America. Argentina is a land of natural beauty, a thriving economy, cosmopolitan cities, and a fascinating culture and history. The country is one of the major Latin American powers and is the largest Spanish speaking nation in the world, making it a major international force. Five facts about Argentina are listed below.

5 Facts You Might Not Know

1

Argentina is comprised of twenty-three provinces of varying sizes. Among these provinces there are treaties which form the provinces into four federal regions: Argentine Greater North Region, Center Region, New Cuyo Region, and the Patagonic Region.

2

The etymology of the word Argentina is derived from the Spanish word argento, meaning silver. The names was first used formally in an 1826 national constitution, but the original use of the word is traced back to a poem published in 1602.

3

After Spanish, the second most widely spoken language in Argentina is Italian. There are also significant numbers of Arabic and German speakers in the country and English is currently taught in most schools as a second language. Indigenous communities in Argentina use their own regional dialects or original languages, such as Quechua.

4

Fewer than ten percent of Argentina's residents live in rural areas and half of the country's population live in the ten major metropolitan areas. The cities tend to be very cosmopolitan since most Europeans who immigrate to Argentina settle in the cities. The country's largest city, Buenos Aries, has a metropolitan area population of thirteen million people and is one of the globe's most populated urban areas.

5

Though Argentina's most popular sport is considered to be football, pato is the official national sport of the country. The word pato means duck in Spanish and in the earliest games of pato players used a duck rather than a ball. The game contains elements of basketball and polo and it is played on horseback using a six-handle ball. Pato has had to be banned by Argentina's government several times throughout the nation's history because of violence.