Strategic location
Located in Southern Brazil and at the center of Mercosur, Rio Grande do Sul provides easy access to South America’s largest consumer markets. Some of the world’s largest cities such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires (Argentina), as well as important population and industrial centers like Belo Horizonte, Montevideo (Uruguay) and Cordoba (Argentina) are located within a radius of 1,500 km from the Capital, Porto Alegre. The region has also the largest population concentration of South America, with 150 million people that can be easily contacted by air, road, rail and waterways, and accounts for more than 70% of South America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with quick access to services and suppliers.
Covering an area of 281,7 thousand km², Rio Grande do Sul’s territory is similar in size to countries such as Poland (312,700 km²), Italy (301,300 km²), Philippines (300,000 km²), Ecuador (283,600 km²), New Zealand (270,500 km²) and the United Kingdom (242 .5 thousand km²). It borders the state of Santa Catarina to the north, the provinces of Misiones and Corrientes, in Argentina, to the west, and Uruguay to the south. To the east, Rio Grande do Sul has a coastline of 623 km.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Statistics (IBGE), in 2021 the population of the State of Rio Grande do Sul is estimated at more than 11.5 million inhabitants, comparable to countries such as Belgium (11.5 million), Czech Republic (11 mi), Greece (10.3 mi), Sweden (10.2 mi), Portugal (10.1 mi), being the fifth most populous state in the Federation.
Flight time from Porto Alegre:
POA-SP: 1h40
POA-RJ: 1h50
POA-BSB: 2h25
POA-Buenos Aires: 1h45
POA-Lima: 4h50
POA-Panama: 7h15
POA-Lisbon: 10h30