Brazil's population nears 170 million

Brazil's population has risen to nearly one-hundred-and-seventy million, according to preliminary results from this year's census.

Figures released by the Brazilian Geographical and Statistics Institute IBGE, which has been carrying out the survey, show that there are now nearly twenty-three million more people in the country than a decade ago.

Other details indicate that more than eighty per cent of the population live in urban areas.

Sao Paulo, the biggest city, has ten point four million inhabitants, and there are two point six million more women than men.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service