The channel Países@ (Countries@), available on the web site of the institute, presents a complete interactive map of demographic, economic and geographic information about all the 192 member states of the United Nations

The opening interface of Países@ is a world map which the user can easily navigate. A click on the selected country shows the Summary page, with the most relevant information about the country chosen: location, name of the capital, territorial extension, GDP figures, language, population and currency. In the same chart there is a short text referring to the political and administrative history of the place, a political map, an image of the national flag, photos and a link to Google Maps, through which the user can view satellite-generated relief images.

Besides the Summary, the user can access other six sections on the menu on top of the Países@ page: Population, Social indicators, Economy, Networks (telephony and Internet), Environment and The Millennium Development Goals. All the data come from The United Nations and other official sources. There are data about the resident population in urban areas, demographic density, birth and mortality rates. The Human Development Index (HDI), malnutrition, sanitation, education and the incidence of the HIV virus are other topics approached in the channel. The indicators can also be viewed as tables.

Also through the menu, the user can access a list with all the 192 countries included in Países@, having, thus, a quick and broad view of their indicator in relation to those in the rest of the world. Therefore, it is possible to know, for instance, that in 2004 the GDP of Brazil (in dollars) was 3.6 times higher than the figure in Argentina, and 4.6 times below the figure in Germany; it is even possible to know that the incidence of HIV among persons from 15 to 49 years of age in South Africa is 43 times higher than in Italy.

Next to each indicator there is a small icon, a globe. By clicking on it, the user can access a table with the same indicators for all the countries, which can be displayed in alphabetical, numerical or geographical order. This resource allows the creation of rankings and also quicker comparisons among countries which belong to the same continent.

Another very interesting section, on The Millennium Development Goals, presents details about this important international agreement created by the United Nations in order to guarantee sustainable development to the world’s economy. In this section are all the indicators relative to specific commitments of each of the countries which are working on the social and environmental requirements established in partnership with the United Nations. 

The link Países@ is now part of the group of other six different databases available on the IBGE web site: SIDRA (with interactive tables of most of IBGE surveys), BME, Profile of Brazilian Municipalities, Interactive Maps, Cities@ (with the main socio-economic indicators of the 5,564 Brazilian municipalities) and States@ (with information about the 27 Federative Units in the country).

Having received the Ibest Award – as the best governmental web site on the Brazilian Internet – the IBGE web site was visited by 14,5 million different users throughout 2006, and reached the impressive figure of 1,260,554,866 hits. Through this site, researches, students, journalists and other users can are able to access information related to the over 50 surveys conducted by the institute – surveys which reveal details about the demography, economy and several social aspects of our country. Besides geographic, cartographic and geodetic information, the IBGE web site contains PDF files of the publications with the results of its main surveys. These files can be downloaded freely by any user, and the traditional printed versions may be bought from the Virtual Shop, by credit card or bank order.

The staff in charge of the web site is formed by 17 professionals, including systems analysts, web designers, geoprocessing analysts and translators. The computer department has 17 desktop-computers and an Internet infrastructure with 19 servers, of which 17 use free-software technology.