60 Fun Facts About Uruguay

Uruguay's official name is the 'Oriental Republic of Uruguay'. Why 'Oriental'?

'República Oriental del Uruguay' literally means 'Republic East of the Uruguay River'; in colonial times the land was simply the Banda Oriental, the eastern bank.

Which two countries share a land border with Uruguay?

Its whole history has been shaped by sitting between the two South American giants; the fourth side of the country is the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic.

Roughly what share of Uruguay's population lives in the metropolitan area of the capital?

Around 1.9 million people live in and around the capital; the rest of the urban population is spread across only about 30 towns.

Uruguay is the second-smallest sovereign nation in South America. Which country is the smallest?

Uruguay covers about 176,000 square kilometres; only French Guiana, an overseas region of France, is smaller on the continent than these two.

Cerro Catedral, the highest point in famously flat Uruguay, rises to roughly what elevation?

It sits in the Sierra Carapé range; the country is mostly rolling plains and low ridges called cuchillas, with 660 km of coastline.

In December 2013 Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalise what?

The Senate passed the law 16 votes to 13, covering growth, use and sale; abortion had been legalised the year before and same-sex marriage the same year.

Which Uruguayan president (2010–2015) was nicknamed 'the world's poorest president'?

He gave away around 90 percent of his roughly US$12,000 monthly salary and declined to live in the presidential palace, staying on his flower farm outside the capital.

What car did 'the world's poorest president' famously drive instead of an official limousine?

He also kept a 60-year-old bicycle, and reportedly turned down a seven-figure offer from an Arab sheikh for the Beetle.

Which Marxist urban guerrilla group in 1960s-70s Uruguay counted a future president among its members?

The group's bank robberies and kidnappings helped trigger the 1973 coup; the future president spent almost 15 years in prison under the military regime that followed.

Uruguay hosted and won the very first FIFA World Cup. In which year?

Every match was played in the capital, most of them in the purpose-built Estadio Centenario, which will also host the opening match of the 2030 centenary tournament.

Who did Uruguay beat 4–2 in the first World Cup final?

The two neighbours already had a fierce rivalry, the Clásico del Río de la Plata; 68,346 people watched the final in Montevideo.

Uruguay's 2–1 win over the hosts in the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup is remembered by what name?

Brazil only needed a draw in front of a home crowd of roughly 200,000; the defeat is still treated as a national trauma there.

What is the nickname of Uruguay's national football team?

It means 'the Sky Blue', from the shirt first worn in a 3–1 win over the neighbours across the River Plate in 1910.

Before the World Cup existed, Uruguay won Olympic football gold twice. In which years?

FIFA organised both tournaments as open events including professionals, which is why Uruguay counts four world titles and wears four stars on its shirt.

Which Uruguayan was awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the 2010 World Cup?

Uruguay reached its first semi-final in 40 years that summer in South Africa, finishing fourth.

Which Italian defender did Luis Suárez bite at the 2014 World Cup?

It was the third biting incident of his career; FIFA banned him from all football for four months and he missed the start of his first Barcelona season.

Which country did Luis Suárez's deliberate goal-line handball knock out of the 2010 World Cup?

He was sent off, Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting penalty, and Uruguay won the shoot-out to reach the semi-finals.

Which two Montevideo clubs contest the Uruguayan Clásico?

Both clubs have won the Intercontinental Cup three times, an extraordinary haul for a country this small.

The 1972 Andes crash of Flight 571 carried an amateur club team in which sport?

The Old Christians Club side was flying to a match in Chile with family and friends; only seven of the 19 players on board came home.

For how many days were the survivors of the 1972 Andes crash stranded on the mountain?

An avalanche 16 days in killed eight more people inside the fuselage; the search had been called off after eight days.

Which two Andes crash survivors trekked for ten days across the mountains to find help?

A third man, Vizintín, turned back after three days so the food would last; the pair eventually reached a Chilean herdsman across a river.

Which 2023 Spanish-language film retold the story of the Andes flight disaster?

J. A. Bayona's film was Spain's Oscar entry; the 1993 Hollywood version starred Ethan Hawke.

Which hero launched Uruguay's 1811 revolt against Spanish rule and won at Las Piedras?

He then broke with Buenos Aires over federalism and organised a Federal League of six provinces, five of which ended up on the other side of the river.

Uruguay's national hero, leader of the 1811 revolt, spent his last three decades exiled in which country?

Driven out after the Portuguese invasion of 1816–20, he died there in 1850 and his remains were only repatriated years later.

The group that declared Uruguay's independence from Brazil on 25 August 1825 is known by what name?

Led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja, their landing set off the 500-day Cisplatine War; 25 August is still Independence Day.

Which outside power's diplomacy produced the 1828 treaty creating Uruguay as a buffer state?

Neither Brazil nor the United Provinces could win the Cisplatine War, and London, keen to keep the River Plate open to trade, sent Viscount Ponsonby to broker the deal.

Uruguay's two 'Traditional Parties' are the Colorados and which other?

The Blancos and Colorados fought several 19th-century civil wars, and their colours came from the hatbands worn by rival armies.

Uruguay's early welfare state earned it the nickname 'the ___ of the Americas'. Which country?

The reforms came under President José Batlle y Ordóñez, and Uruguay's constitution even borrowed the Swiss idea of citizen-initiated referendums.

Which German warship took refuge in Montevideo after fighting British cruisers in 1939?

Uruguay had declared neutrality; the ship claimed sanctuary in a neutral port but was ordered to leave within days.

What happened to the German warship that sheltered in Montevideo after the Battle of the River Plate?

Captain Langsdorff believed a much larger British force was waiting outside; the decision infuriated Hitler and Langsdorff shot himself days later.

If counted as a river, the Río de la Plata is the widest in the world. About how wide is it at its mouth?

It is the estuary of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers, and geographers still argue over whether it is a river, a gulf or a marginal sea.

Uruguayans drink about 19 litres per head yearly of which beverage, more than any other nation?

People carry the gourd and a thermos of hot water everywhere; the leaf itself is mostly imported from Brazil since it barely grows in Uruguay.

The chivito, often called Uruguay's national dish, is what?

The name literally means 'little goat', though there is no goat in it; the standard version piles on lettuce, tomato, olives and mozzarella.

The alfajor, Uruguay's most typical sweet, is a small cake filled with what?

It is usually coated in chocolate or meringue; the pastafrola, another favourite, is the one filled with quince jelly.

On the 29th of every month, many Uruguayans traditionally sit down to which dish?

The custom came with immigrants from Veneto and honours Saint Pantaleon; some people put money under the plate for luck.

Which Afro-Uruguayan drumming tradition did UNESCO add to its heritage list in 2009?

It is played on three drums, chico, repique and piano, by a marching group of drummers called a cuerda, who warm the drum skins over a fire before playing.

'La cumparsita' (1917), one of the most famous tangos ever written, was composed by which Uruguayan?

He wrote it as a teenage student in Montevideo, originally as a march for a student carnival group.

Tango legend Carlos Gardel took Uruguayan nationality claiming to have been born in which town?

French records say he was born in Toulouse; the dispute continues, but a Gardel museum opened near the town in 1999 anyway.

Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler won an Academy Award in 2004 for a song from which film?

'Al otro lado del río' was the first Spanish-language song to win Best Original Song; the producers famously had Antonio Banderas perform it at the ceremony instead of him.

Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano is best known for which 1971 book?

Hugo Chávez handed a copy to Barack Obama in 2009; Galeano later said he could no longer bear to reread his own youthful prose.

What does the famous 1982 sculpture on Brava Beach in Punta del Este depict?

Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal made it during a summer sculpture meeting; locals call it Los Dedos or simply La Mano.

Which Uruguayan artist built Casapueblo, the white cliffside home-hotel near Punta del Este?

He drew on Timbuktu and Mykonos for the design; his son Carlitos was one of the survivors of the 1972 Andes crash.

In 2009 Uruguay became the first country in the world to give every primary-school pupil what?

Plan Ceibal, part of One Laptop per Child, reached 362,000 pupils by 2009 and cost under 5% of the education budget.

In 2023, roughly what share of Uruguay's electricity came from renewable sources?

The switch to wind and hydro took less than a decade and Uruguay no longer imports electricity at all.

In 2007 Uruguay's world-leading cattle herd worked out to roughly how many head per person?

Livestock occupies about 60% of the land, and beef is the country's main export commodity.

Montevideo is the southernmost capital in the Americas. Which two world capitals lie farther south?

Uruguay is also the only South American country lying entirely south of the Tropic of Capricorn.

In the 2010s, Uruguay was the world's top per-capita contributor to what?

With an army of about 18,000, it had well over 2,000 soldiers deployed at once, notably in Haiti and the Congo.

Uruguay is divided into how many departments?

Each elects its own superintendent and board; the 99 members of the Chamber of Representatives are elected to represent them.

Which architect designed Montevideo's Palacio Salvo, completed in 1925?

The Italian also designed its near-twin, the Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires; the other three options are all celebrated Uruguayan architects.

Which European explorer, in 1516, was the first to reach the region that became Uruguay?

He was killed shortly after landing; the area was colonised much later than its neighbours because it had no gold or silver.

Which indigenous people of Uruguay lend their name to the national football team's other nickname?

About 9,000 of them are thought to have lived there in the 16th century; the country's name itself comes from Guaraní.

Which European power founded Colonia del Sacramento in 1680, sparking a century of contest?

The Spanish answered by founding a fortified port at Montevideo in 1726; Colonia's old town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Uruguay has the smallest population of any World Cup winner. Roughly how many people live there?

That is fewer people than the city of São Paulo, yet the country exported 1,414 professional footballers during the 2000s alone.

Uruguay's 13-year civil conflict that began in 1839 and included a nine-year siege of Montevideo is known as what?

Colorado leader Fructuoso Rivera declared war on Argentina's Rosas, who backed the Blanco president Manuel Oribe.

Which Blanco leader was killed at the Battle of Masoller during the last rural revolt of 1904?

His defeat ended the 'co-participation' politics that had shared power between Colorados and Blancos since 1872.

Which Colorado leader won the 1984 election and served as Uruguay's first president after the dictatorship?

The military's own draft constitution had been rejected in a 1980 referendum, prompting the return to civilian rule.

In which Uruguayan city was the national record high of 44 °C first recorded, in January 1943?

Florida city equalled the mark in 2022, while the record low of -11 °C was set at Melo in 1967.

Uruguay's first permanent separation of church and state came with the constitution of which year?

Divorce had been legalised in 1907 and religious instruction banned from state schools in 1909, under Batlle y Ordóñez's influence.

Which architect designed Punta del Este International Airport, opened in 1997?

Viñoly's firm was later commissioned to expand Montevideo's Carrasco airport with a $165 million terminal.

What did Uruguay make official under Law 17.378 in 2001?

Spanish is only the de facto national language, and the Portuñol spoken along the Brazilian border has no official recognition.