Argentina is a federation of twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. Provinces are divided for administration purposes into departments and municipalities, except for Buenos Aires Province, which is divided into partidos. The City of Buenos Aires is divided into communes.

Provinces hold all the power that they chose not to delegate to the federal government;^[153] they must be representative republics and must not contradict the Constitution.^[154] Beyond this they are fully autonomous: they enact their own constitutions,^[155] freely organize their local governments,^[156] and own and manage their natural and financial resources.^[157] Some provinces have bicameral legislatures, while others have unicameral ones.^[K]

During the War of Independence the main cities and their surrounding countrysides became provinces though the intervention of their cabildos. The Anarchy of the Year XX completed this process, shaping the original thirteen provinces. Jujuy seceded from Salta in 1834, and the thirteen provinces became fourteen.
After seceding for a decade, Buenos Aires accepted the 1853 Constitution of Argentina in 1861, and was made a federal territory in 1880.^[159]

An 1862 law designated as national territories those under federal control but outside the frontiers of the provinces. In 1884 they served as bases for the establishment of the governorates of Misiones, Formosa, Chaco, La Pampa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.^[160]
The agreement about a frontier dispute with Chile in 1900 created the National Territory of Los Andes; its lands were incorporated into Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca in 1943.^[159]La Pampa and Chaco became provinces in 1951. Misiones did so in 1953, and Formosa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, in 1955. The last national territory, Tierra del Fuego, became the Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province in 1990.^[159]

Foreign relations

Argentina is one of G-20 major economies.

Foreign policy is officially handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, which answers to the President.

An historical and current middle power,^[27] Argentina bases its foreign policies on the guiding principles of non-intervention,^[161] human rights, self-determination, international cooperation, disarmament and peaceful settlement of conflicts.^[162]
The country is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies of the world, and a founding member of the UN, WBG, WTO and OAS.
In 2012 Argentina was elected again to a two-year non-permanent position on the United Nations Security Council and is participating in major peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Cyprus, Western Sahara and the Middle East.^[163]

A prominent Latin American^[28] and Southern Cone^[29]regional power, Argentina co-founded OEI, CELAC and UNASUR, of which the former President Néstor Kirchner was first Secretary General.
It is also a founding member of the Mercosur block, having Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela as partners. Since 2002 the country has emphasized its key role in Latin American integration, and the block—which has some supranational legislative functions—is its first international priority.^[164]

Argentina claims 965,597 km² (372,819 sq mi) in Antarctica, where it has the world's oldest continuous state presence, since 1904.^[165] This overlaps claims by Chile and the United Kingdom, though all such claims fall under the provisions of the 1961 Antarctic Treaty, of which Argentina is a founding signatory and permanent consulting member, with the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat being based in Buenos Aires.^[166]

Argentina disputes sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas), and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,^[167] which are administered by the United Kingdom as Overseas Territories.

Armed forces

Argentine Army

The President holds the title of commander-in-chief of the Argentine Armed Forces, as part of a legal framework that imposes a strict separation between national defense and internal security systems:^[168][169]

The National Defense System, an exclusive responsibility of the federal government,^[170] coordinated by the Ministry of Defense, and comprising the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.^[171] Ruled and monitored by Congress^[172] through the Houses' Defense Committees,^[173] it is organized on the essential principle of legitimate self-defense: the repelling of any external military aggression in order to guarantee freedom of the people, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity.^[173] Its secondary missions include committing to multinational operations within the framework of the United Nations, participating in internal support missions, assisting friendly countries, and establishing a sub-regional defense system.^[173]

Argentine destroyer ARA Almirante Brown (D-10)^[174]

Military service is voluntary, with enlistment age between 18 and 24 years old and no conscription.^[175] Argentina's defense has historically been one of the best equipped in the region, even managing its own weapon research facilities, shipyards, ordnance, tank and plane factories.^[176] However, real military expenditures declined steadily after 1981 and the defense budget in 2011 was about 0.74% of GDP, a historical minimum,^[177] below the Latin American average.

The Interior Security System, jointly administered by the federal and subscribing provincial governments.^[169] At the federal level it is coordinated by the Interior, Security and Justice ministries, and monitored by Congress.^[169] It is enforced by the Federal Police; the Prefecture, which fulfills coast guard duties; the Gendarmerie, which serves border guard tasks; and the Airport Security Police.^[178] At the provincial level it is coordinated by the respective internal security ministries and enforced by local police agencies.^[169]

Argentina was the only South American country to send warships and cargo planes in 1991 to the Gulf War under UN mandate and has remained involved in peacekeeping efforts in multiple locations like UNPROFOR in Croatia/Bosnia, Gulf of Fonseca, UNFICYP in Cyprus (where among Army and Marines troops the Air Force provided the UN Air contingent since 1994) and MINUSTAH in Haiti. Argentina is the only Latin American country to maintain troops in Kosovo during SFOR (and later EUFOR) operations where combat engineers of the Argentine Armed Forces are embedded in an Italian brigade.

In 2007, an Argentine contingent including helicopters, boats and water purification plants was sent to help Bolivia against their worst floods in decades.^[179] In 2010 the Armed Forces were also involved in Haiti and Chile humanitarian responses after their respective earthquakes.

Economy

Argentine agriculture is relatively capital intensive, today providing about 7% of all employment.^[180]

Benefiting from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, a diversified industrial base, and an export-oriented agricultural sector, the economy of Argentina is Latin America's third-largest,^[181] and the second largest in South America.^[182] It has a "very high" rating on the Human Development Index^[19] and a relatively high GDP per capita,^[183] with a considerable internal market size and a growing share of the high-tech sector.

YPF petroleum perforation in General Roca, Rio Negro Province

A middle emerging economy and one of the world's top developing nations,^[184][L] Argentina is a member of the G-20 major economies. Historically, however, its economic performance has been very uneven, with high economic growth alternating with severe recessions, income maldistribution and—in the recent decades—increasing poverty. Early in the 20th century Argentina achieved development,^[25] and became the world's seventh richest country.^[24] Although managing to keep a place among the top fifteen economies until mid-century,^[24] it suffered a long and steady decline, but it is still a high income country.^[185]

High inflation—a weakness of the Argentine economy for decades—has become a trouble once again,^[186] with an annual rate of 24.8% in 2017.^[187]Income distribution, having improved since 2002, is classified as "medium", still considerably unequal.^[18]

Argentina ranks 85th out of 180 countries in the Transparency International's 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index,^[188] an improvement of 22 positions over its 2014 rankings.^[189] Argentina settled its long-standing debt default crisis in 2016 with the so-called Vulture funds after the election of Mauricio Macri, allowing Argentina to enter capital markets for the first time in a decade.^[190]

Industry

Atucha Nuclear Power Plant was the first nuclear power plant in Latin America.^[191] The electricity comes from 3 operational nuclear reactors: The Embalse Nuclear Power Station, the Atucha I and II.

In 2012^[update]manufacturing accounted for 20.3% of GDP—the largest goods-producing sector in the nation's economy.^[192] Well-integrated into Argentine agriculture, half of the industrial exports have rural origin.^[192]

With a 6.5% production growth rate in 2011^[update],^[193] the diversified manufacturing sector rests on a steadily growing network of industrial parks (314 as of 2013^[update])^[194][195]

In 2012^[update] the leading sectors by volume were: food processing, beverages and tobacco products; motor vehicles and auto parts; textiles and leather; refinery products and biodiesel; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; steel, aluminum and iron; industrial and farm machinery; home appliances and furniture; plastics and tires; glass and cement; and recording and print media.^[192] In addition, Argentina has since long been one of the top five wine-producing countries in the world.^[192] However, it has also been classified as one of the 74 countries where instances of child labor and forced labor have been observed and mentioned in a 2014 report published by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs.^[196] The ILAB's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor shows that many of the goods produced by child labor or forced labor comes from the agricultural sector.^[196]

Córdoba is Argentina's major industrial center, hosting metalworking, motor vehicle and auto parts manufactures. Next in importance are the Greater Buenos Aires area (food processing, metallurgy, motor vehicles and auto parts, chemicals and petrochemicals, consumer durables, textiles and printing); Rosario (food processing, metallurgy, farm machinery, oil refining, chemicals, and tanning); San Miguel de Tucumán (sugar refining); San Lorenzo (chemicals and pharmaceuticals); San Nicolás de los Arroyos (steel milling and metallurgy); and Ushuaia and Bahía Blanca (oil refining).^{[197][unreliable source?]}
Other manufacturing enterprises are located in the provinces of Santa Fe (zinc and copper smelting, and flour milling); Mendoza and Neuquén (wineries and fruit processing); Chaco (textiles and sawmills); and Santa Cruz, Salta and Chubut (oil refining).^{[197][unreliable source?]}

The electric output of Argentina in 2009^[update] totaled over 122 TWh (440 PJ), of which about 37% was consumed by industrial activities.^[198]

Transport

Ministro Pistarini International Airport opened in 1949.

Argentina has the largest railway system in Latin America, with 36,966 km (22,970 mi) of operating lines in 2008^[update], out of a full network of almost 48,000 km (29,826 mi).^[199] This system links all 23 provinces plus Buenos Aires City, and connects with all neighboring countries.^[200] There are four incompatible gauges in use; this forces virtually all interregional freight traffic to pass through Buenos Aires.^[200] The system has been in decline since the 1940s: regularly running up large budgetary deficits, by 1991 it was transporting 1,400 times less goods than it did in 1973.^[200] However, in recent years the system has experienced a greater degree of investment from the state, in both commuter rail lines and long distance lines, renewing rolling stock and infrastructure.^[201][202] In April 2015, by overwhelming majority the Argentine Senate passed a law which re-created Ferrocarriles Argentinos (2015), effectively re-nationalising the country's railways, a move which saw support from all major political parties on both sides of the political spectrum.^{[203][204][205]}

Argentina rail passenger services (interactive map)

Buenos Aires Underground, is the first underground railway in Latin America, the Southern Hemisphere and the Spanish speaking world.^[206]

By 2004^[update] Buenos Aires, all provincial capitals except Ushuaia, and all medium-sized towns were interconnected by 69,412 km (43,131 mi) of paved roads, out of a total road network of 231,374 km (143,769 mi).^[207] Most important cities are linked by a growing number of expressways, including Buenos Aires–La Plata, Rosario–Córdoba, Córdoba–Villa Carlos Paz, Villa Mercedes–Mendoza, National Route 14 General José Gervasio Artigas and Provincial Route 2 Juan Manuel Fangio, among others.
Nevertheless, this road infrastructure is still inadequate and cannot handle the sharply growing demand caused by deterioration of the railway system.^[200]

In 2012^[update] there were about 11,000 km (6,835 mi) of waterways,^[208] mostly comprising the La Plata, Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers, with Buenos Aires, Zárate, Campana, Rosario, San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, Barranqueras and San Nicolas de los Arroyos as the main fluvial ports.
Some of the largest sea ports are La Plata–Ensenada, Bahía Blanca, Mar del Plata, Quequén–Necochea, Comodoro Rivadavia, Puerto Deseado, Puerto Madryn, Ushuaia and San Antonio Oeste.
Buenos Aires has historically been the most important port; however since the 1990s the Up-River port region has become dominant: stretching along 67 km (42 mi) of the Paraná river shore in Santa Fe province, it includes 17 ports and in 2013^[update] accounted for 50% of all exports.

In 2013^[update] there were 161 airports with paved runways^[209] out of more than a thousand.^[200] The Ezeiza International Airport, about 35 km (22 mi) from downtown Buenos Aires,^[210] is the largest in the country, followed by Cataratas del Iguazú in Misiones, and El Plumerillo in Mendoza.^[200]Aeroparque, in the city of Buenos Aires, is the most important domestic airport.^[211]

Media and communications

"Estudio Pais 24, the Program of the Argentines" in Channel 7, the first television station in the country

Print media industry is highly developed in Argentina, with more than two hundred newspapers. The major national ones include Clarín (centrist, Latin America's best-seller and the second most widely circulated in the Spanish-speaking world), La Nación (center-right, published since 1870), Página/12 (leftist, founded in 1987), the Buenos Aires Herald (Latin America's most prestigious English language daily, liberal, dating back to 1876), La Voz del Interior (center, founded in 1904),^[212] and the Argentinisches Tageblatt (German weekly, liberal, published since 1878)^[213]

Argentina began the world's first regular radio broadcasting on 27 August 1920, when Richard Wagner's Parsifal was aired by a team of medical students led by Enrique Telémaco Susini in Buenos Aires' Teatro Coliseo.^[214][215] By 2002^[update] there were 260 AM and 1150 FM registered radio stations in the country.^[216]

The Argentine television industry is large, diverse and popular across Latin America, with many productions and TV formats having been exported abroad. Since 1999 Argentines enjoy the highest availability of cable and satellite television in Latin America,^[217] as of 2014^[update] totaling 87.4% of the country's households, a rate similar to those in the United States, Canada and Europe.^[218]

By 2011^[update] Argentina also had the highest coverage of networked telecommunications among Latin American powers: about 67% of its population had internet access and 137.2%, mobile phone subscriptions.^[219]

Science and technology

SAC-D is an Argentine earth science satellite built by INVAP and launched in 2011.

Argentinians have received three Nobel Prizes in the Sciences. Bernardo Houssay, the first Latin American recipient, discovered the role of pituitary hormones in regulating glucose in animals, and shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947. Luis Leloir discovered how organisms store energy converting glucose into glycogen and the compounds which are fundamental in metabolizing carbohydrates, receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1970. César Milstein did extensive research in antibodies, sharing the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984. Argentine research has led to treatments for heart diseases and several forms of cancer. Domingo Liotta designed and developed the first artificial heart that was successfully implanted in a human being in 1969. René Favaloro developed the techniques and performed the world's first coronary bypass surgery.

Argentina's nuclear programme has been highly successful. In 1957 Argentina was the first country in Latin America to design and build a research reactor with homegrown technology, the RA-1 Enrico Fermi. This reliance in the development of own nuclear related technologies, instead of simply buying them abroad, was a constant of Argentina's nuclear programme conducted by the civilian National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). Nuclear facilities with Argentine technology have been built in Peru, Algeria, Australia and Egypt. In 1983, the country admitted having the capability of producing weapon-grade uranium, a major step needed to assemble nuclear weapons; since then, however, Argentina has pledged to use nuclear power only for peaceful purposes.^[220] As a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Argentina has been a strong voice in support of nuclear non-proliferation efforts^[221] and is highly committed to global nuclear security.^[222] In 1974 it was the first country in Latin America to put in-line a commercial nuclear power plant, Atucha I. Although the Argentine built parts for that station amounted to 10% of the total, the nuclear fuel it uses are since entirely built in the country. Later nuclear power stations employed a higher percentage of Argentine built components; Embalse, finished in 1983, a 30% and the 2011 Atucha II reactor a 40%.^[223]

President Macri in the INVAP with the SAOCOM A and B, two planned Earth observation satellite constellation of Argentine Space Agency CONAE. the scheduled launch dates for 1A and 1B were further pushed back to October 2017 and October 2018.^[224]

Despite its modest budget and numerous setbacks, academics and the sciences in Argentina have enjoyed an international respect since the turn of the 1900s, when Dr. Luis Agote devised the first safe and effective means of blood transfusion as well as René Favaloro, who was a pioneer in the improvement of the coronary artery bypass surgery. Argentine scientists are still on the cutting edge in fields such as nanotechnology, physics, computer sciences, molecular biology, oncology, ecology and cardiology. Juan Maldacena, an Argentine-American scientist, is a leading figure in string theory.

Space research has also become increasingly active in Argentina. Argentine built satellites include LUSAT-1 (1990), Víctor-1 (1996), PEHUENSAT-1 (2007),^[225] and those developed by CONAE, the Argentine space agency, of the SAC series.^[226] Argentina has its own satellite programme, nuclear power station designs (4th generation) and public nuclear energy company INVAP, which provides several countries with nuclear reactors.^[227] Established in 1991, the CONAE has since launched two satellites successfully and,^[228] in June 2009, secured an agreement with the European Space Agency for the installation of a 35-m diameter antenna and other mission support facilities at the Pierre Auger Observatory, the world's foremost cosmic ray observatory.^[229] The facility will contribute to numerous ESA space probes, as well as CONAE's own, domestic research projects. Chosen from 20 potential sites and one of only three such ESA installations in the world, the new antenna will create a triangulation which will allow the ESA to ensure mission coverage around the clock^[230]

Tourism

Tourism in Argentina is characterized by its cultural offerings and its ample and varied natural assets. The country had 5.57 million visitors in 2013, ranking in terms of the international tourist arrivals as the top destination in South America, and second in Latin America after Mexico.^[231] Revenues from international tourists reached US$4.41 billion in 2013, down from US$4.89 billion in 2012.^[231] The country's capital city, Buenos Aires, is the most visited city in South America.^[232] There are 30 National Parks of Argentina including many World Heritage Sites.

The Iguazu Falls, in Misiones Province, it is one of the New7Wonders of Nature.^[233]

Demographics

Balvanera, Buenos Aires, filled with picturesque Dutch style tenements.

In the 2001 census [INDEC], Argentina had a population of 36,260,130, and preliminary results from the 2010 census were of 40,091,359 inhabitants.^[234][235] Argentina ranks third in South America in total population and 33rd globally. Population density is of 15 persons per square kilometer of land area, well below the world average of 50 persons. The population growth rate in 2010 was an estimated 1.03% annually, with a birth rate of 17.7 live births per 1,000 inhabitants and a mortality rate of 7.4 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. The net migration rate has ranged from zero to four immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year.^{[citation needed]}

The proportion of people under 15 is 25.6%, a little below the world average of 28%, and the proportion of people 65 and older is relatively high at 10.8%. In Latin America this is second only to Uruguay and well above the world average, which is currently 7%. Argentina has one of Latin America's lowest population growth rates, recently about 1% a year, as well as a comparatively low infant mortality rate. Its birth rate of 2.3 children per woman is still nearly twice as high as that in Spain or Italy, compared here as they have similar religious practices and proportions.^[236][237] The median age is approximately 30 years and life expectancy at birth is 77.14 years.^[238]

Argentina became in 2010 the first country in Latin America and the second in the Americas to allow same-sex marriage nationwide.^[239] It was the tenth country to allow same-sex marriage.^[240]

Ethnography

Queen Maxima was born and raised in Argentina of Spanish and Italian descent.

Over 25 million or 62.5% of Argentina's population have at least one Italian immigrant ancestor^[241]

As with other areas of new settlement such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Uruguay, Argentina is considered a country of immigrants.^{[242][243][244]} Argentines usually refer to the country as a crisol de razas (crucible of races, or melting pot).

Between 1857 and 1950 Argentina was the country with the second biggest immigration wave in the world, with 6.6 million, second only to the United States in the numbers of immigrants received (27 million) and ahead of such other areas of new settlement like Canada, Brazil and Australia.^[245][246]

Strikingly, at those times, the national population doubled every two decades. This belief is endured in the popular saying "los argentinos descienden de los barcos" (Argentines descend from the ships). Therefore, most Argentines are descended from the 19th- and 20th-century immigrants of the great immigration wave to Argentina (1850–1955),^[247][248] with a great majority of these immigrants coming from diverse European countries. The majority of these European immigrants came from Italy and Spain.^[245] The majority of Argentines descend from multiple European ethnic groups, primarily of Italian and Spanish descent (over 25 million individuals in Argentina, almost 60% of the population have some partial Italian origins),^[249]

Argentina is home to a significant population of Arab and partial Arab background, mostly of Syrian and Lebanese origin (in Argentina they are considered among the white people, just like in the United States Census). The majority of Arab Argentines are Christians who belong to the Maronite Church, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. A scant number are Muslims of Middle Eastern origins. The Asian population in the country numbers at around 180,000 individuals, most of whom are of Chinese^[250] and Korean descent, although an older Japanese community that traces back to the early 20th century still exists.^{[citation needed]}

A study conducted on 218 individuals in 2010 by the Argentine geneticist Daniel Corach, has established that the genetic map of Argentina is composed by 79% from different European ethnicities (mainly Spanish and Italian ethnicities), 18% of different indigenous ethnicities, and 4.3% of African ethnic groups, in which 63.6% of the tested group had at least one ancestor who was Indigenous.^[251][252]

From the 1970s, immigration has mostly been coming from Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru, with smaller numbers from Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Romania.^[253] The Argentine government estimates that 750,000 inhabitants lack official documents and has launched a program^[254] to encourage illegal immigrants to declare their status in return for two-year residence visas—so far over 670,000 applications have been processed under the program.^[255]

Genetics studies

Luis Guaile, "Copacho", lonco tehuelche o aónikenk (native of the Patagonian region Argentina).

• Homburguer et al., 2015, PLOS One Genetics: 67% European, 28% Amerindian, 4% African and 1,4% Asian.^[256]


• Avena et al., 2012, PLOS One Genetics: 65% European, 31% Amerindian, and 4% African.^[257]
  • Buenos Aires Province: 76% European and 24% others.
  
  
  • South Zone (Chubut Province): 54% European and 46% others.
  
  
  • Northeast Zone (Misiones, Corrientes, Chaco & Formosa provinces): 54% European and 46% others.
  
  
  • Northwest Zone (Salta Province): 33% European and 67% others.
  
  


• Oliveira, 2008, on Universidade de Brasília: 60% European, 31% Amerindian and 9% African.^[258]


• 
  National Geographic: 52% European, 27% Amerindian ancestry, 9% African and 9% others.^[259]

Languages

Dialectal variants of the Spanish language in Argentina

The de facto^[M] official language is Spanish, spoken by almost all Argentines.^[260]
The country is the largest Spanish-speaking society that universally employs voseo, the use of the pronoun vos instead of tú ("you"), which imposes the use of alternative verb forms as well.
Due to the extensive Argentine geography, Spanish has a strong variation among regions, although the prevalent dialect is Rioplatense, primarily spoken in the La Plata Basin and accented similarly to the Neapolitan language.^[261] Italian and other European immigrants influenced Lunfardo—the regional slang—permeating the vernacular vocabulary of other Latin American countries as well.

There are several second-languages in widespread use among the Argentine population:

• English,^[N] taught since elementary school. 42.3% of Argentines claim to speak it, with 15.4% of them claiming to have a high level of language comprehension.^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Italian, by 1.5 million people.^[260][O]


• 
  Arabic, specially its Northern Levantine dialect, by one million people.^[260]


• 
  Standard German, by 400,000 people.^[260][P]


• 
  Yiddish, by 200,000 people,^[260] the largest Jewish population in Latin America and 7th in the world.^[262]


• 
  Guaraní, by 200,000 people,^[260] mostly in Corrientes (where it is official de jure) and Misiones.^[5]


• 
  Catalan, by 174,000 people.^[260]


• 
  French, including the rare Occitan language.


• 
  Quechua, by 65,000 people, mostly in the Northwest.^[260]


• 
  Wichí, by 53,700 people, mainly in Chaco^[260] where, along with Kom and Moqoit, it is official de jure.^[6]


• 
  Vlax Romani, by 52,000 people.^[260]


• 
  Albanian, by 40.000 people.^[263]


• 
  Japanese, by 32,000 people.^[260]


• 
  Aymara, by 30,000 people, mostly in the Northwest.^[260]


• 
  Ukrainian, by 27,000 people.^[260]


• 
  Welsh, including its Patagonian dialect, in which 25,000 people are fluent.^[260] Some districts have recently incorporated it as an educational language.^[264]

Religion

Francis, the first pope from the New World, was born and raised in Argentina.

The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion.^[265] Although it enforces neither an official nor a state faith,^[266] it gives Roman Catholicism a preferential status.^[267][Q]

According to a CONICET poll in 2008, at the time of polling Argentines were 76.5% Catholic, 11.3% Agnostics and Atheists, 9% Evangelical Protestants, 1.2% Jehovah's Witnesses, 0.9% Mormons; while 1.2% followed other religions, including Islam, Judaism and Buddhism.^[269] These figures appear to have changed quite significantly in recent years. Data recorded in 2017 indicated that Catholics made up 66% of the population, indicating a drop of 10.5% in nine years, and the non-religious in the country standing at 21% of the population, indicating an almost doubling over nine years.^[13]

Gauchito Gil (left) San La Muerte (right) two popular Saints on display in Argentina

The country is home to both the largest Muslim^[268] and largest Jewish communities in Latin America, the latter being the 7th most populous in the world.^[270] Argentina is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.^[268]

Argentines show high individualization and de-institutionalization of religious beliefs;^[271] 23.8% of them claim to always attend religious services; 49.1%, to seldom do and 26.8%, to never do.^[272]

On 13 March 2013, Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected Bishop of Rome and Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. He took the name "Francis", and he became the first Pope from either the Americas or from the Southern Hemisphere; he is the first Pope born outside of Europe since the election of Pope Gregory III (who was Syrian) in 741.^[273]

Urbanization

Argentina is highly urbanized, with 92% of its population living in cities:^[274] the ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population.
About 3 million people live in the city of Buenos Aires, and including the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area it totals around 13 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world.^[275]

The metropolitan areas of Córdoba and Rosario have around 1.3 million inhabitants each.^[275] Mendoza, San Miguel de Tucumán, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Salta and Santa Fe have at least half a million people each.^[275]

The population is unequally distributed: about 60% live in the Pampas region (21% of the total area), including 15 million people in Buenos Aires province. The provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe, and the city of Buenos Aires have 3 million each. Seven other provinces have over one million people each: Mendoza, Tucumán, Entre Ríos, Salta, Chaco, Corrientes and Misiones. With 64.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (167/sq mi), Tucumán is the only Argentine province more densely populated than the world average; by contrast, the southern province of Santa Cruz has around 1.1/km² (2.8/sq mi).^[276]

v t e Largest cities or towns in Argentina (2015 INDEC metro area estimate)[277]
	Rank	Name	Province	Pop.	Rank	Name	Province	Pop.
Buenos Aires Córdoba	1	Buenos Aires	(Autonomous city)	13,834,000	11	Resistencia	Chaco	409,000	Rosario Mendoza
	2	Córdoba	Córdoba	1,519,000	12	Santiago del Estero	Santiago del Estero	406,000
	3	Rosario	Santa Fe	1,429,000	13	Corrientes	Corrientes	383,000
	4	Mendoza	Mendoza	1,082,000	14	Posadas	Misiones	355,000
	5	Tucumán	Tucumán	868,000	15	San Salvador de Jujuy	Jujuy	338,000
	6	La Plata	Buenos Aires	836,000	16	Neuquén	Neuquén	309,000
	7	Mar del Plata	Buenos Aires	633,000	17	Bahía Blanca	Buenos Aires	307,000
	8	Salta	Salta	625,000	18	Paraná	Entre Ríos	274,000
	9	Santa Fe	Santa Fe	530,000	19	Formosa	Formosa	258,000
	10	San Juan	San Juan	513,000	20	San Luis	San Luis	218,000

Education

Argentina has historically been placed high in the global rankings of literacy, with rates similar to those of developed countries.

The Argentine education system consists of four levels:^[278]

• An initial level for children between 45 days to 5 years old, with the last two years^[279] being compulsory.


• An elementary or lower school mandatory level lasting 6 or 7 years.^[R] In 2010^[update] the literacy rate was 98.07%.^[280]


• A secondary or high school mandatory level lasting 5 or 6 years.^[R] In 2010^[update] 38.5% of people over age 20 had completed secondary school.^[281]


• A higher level, divided in tertiary, university and post-graduate sub-levels. in 2013^[update] there were 47 national public universities across the country, as well as 46 private ones.^[282] In 2010^[update] 7.1% of people over age 20 had graduated from university.^[281] The public universities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Plata, Rosario, and the National Technological University are some of the most important.

The Argentine state guarantees universal, secular and free-of-charge public education for all levels.^[S] Responsibility for educational supervision is organized at the federal and individual provincial states. In the last decades the role of the private sector has grown across all educational stages.

Health care

The University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, alma mater to many of the country's 3,000 medical graduates, annually^[283]

Health care is provided through a combination of employer and labor union-sponsored plans (Obras Sociales), government insurance plans, public hospitals and clinics and through private health insurance plans. Health care cooperatives number over 300 (of which 200 are related to labor unions) and provide health care for half the population; the national INSSJP (popularly known as PAMI) covers nearly all of the five million senior citizens.^[284]

There are more than 153,000 hospital beds, 121,000 physicians and 37,000 dentists (ratios comparable to developed nations).^[285][286] The relatively high access to medical care has historically resulted in mortality patterns and trends similar to developed nations': from 1953 to 2005, deaths from cardiovascular disease increased from 20% to 23% of the total, those from tumors from 14% to 20%, respiratory problems from 7% to 14%, digestive maladies (non-infectious) from 7% to 11%, strokes a steady 7%, injuries, 6%, and infectious diseases, 4%. Causes related to senility led to many of the rest. Infant deaths have fallen from 19% of all deaths in 1953 to 3% in 2005.^[285][287]

The availability of health care has also reduced infant mortality from 70 per 1000 live births in 1948^[288] to 12.1 in 2009^[285] and raised life expectancy at birth from 60 years to 76.^[288] Though these figures compare favorably with global averages, they fall short of levels in developed nations and in 2006, Argentina ranked fourth in Latin America.^[286]

Culture

El Ateneo Grand Splendid was named the second most beautiful bookshop in the world by The Guardian.^[289]

Argentina is a multicultural country with significant European influences. Modern Argentine culture has been largely influenced by Italian, Spanish and other European immigration from France, United Kingdom, and Germany among others. Its cities are largely characterized by both the prevalence of people of European descent, and of conscious imitation of American and European styles in fashion, architecture and design.^[290] Museums, cinemas, and galleries are abundant in all the large urban centers, as well as traditional establishments such as literary bars, or bars offering live music of a variety of genres although there are lesser elements of Amerindian and African influences, particularly in the fields of music and art. ^[291] The other big influence is the gauchos and their traditional country lifestyle of self-reliance.^[292] Finally, indigenous American traditions have been absorbed into the general cultural milieu.
Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato has reflected on the nature of the culture of Argentina as follows:

With the primitive Hispanic American reality fractured in La Plata Basin due to immigration, its inhabitants have come to be somewhat dual with all the dangers but also with all the advantages of that condition: because of our European roots, we deeply link the nation with the enduring values of the Old World; because of our condition of Americans we link ourselves to the rest of the continent, through the folklore of the interior and the old Castilian that unifies us, feeling somehow the vocation of the Patria Grande San Martín and Bolívar once imagined.

— Ernesto Sabato, La cultura en la encrucijada nacional (1976)^[293]

Literature

Four of the most influential Argentine writers. Top-left to bottom-right: Julio Cortázar, Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares

Although Argentina's rich literary history began around 1550,^[294] it reached full independence with Esteban Echeverría's El Matadero, a romantic landmark that played a significant role in the development of 19th century's Argentine narrative,^[295] split by the ideological divide between the popular, federalist epic of José Hernández' Martín Fierro and the elitist and cultured discourse of Sarmiento's masterpiece, Facundo.^[296]

The Modernist movement advanced into the 20th century including exponents such as Leopoldo Lugones and poet Alfonsina Storni;^[297] it was followed by Vanguardism, with Ricardo Güiraldes's Don Segundo Sombra as an important reference.^[298]

Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina's most acclaimed writer and one of the foremost figures in the history of literature,^[299] found new ways of looking at the modern world in metaphor and philosophical debate and his influence has extended to authors all over the globe. Short stories such as Ficciones and The Aleph are among his most famous works. He was a friend and collaborator of Adolfo Bioy Casares, who wrote one of the most praised science fiction novels, The Invention of Morel.^[300]Julio Cortázar, one of the leading members of the Latin American Boom and a major name in 20th century literature,^[301] influenced an entire generation of writers in the Americas and Europe.^[302]

A remarkable episode in the Argentine literature's history is the social and literarial dialectica between the so-called Florida Group named this way because its members used to meet together at the Richmond Cafeteria at Florida street and published in the Martin Fierro magazine, like Jorge Luis Borges, Leopoldo Marechal, Antonio Berni (artist), among others, versus the Boedo Group of Roberto Arlt,
Cesar Tiempo,
Homero Manzi (tango composer), that used to meet at the
Japanese Cafe and published their works with the Editorial Claridad, with both the cafe and the publisher located at the Boedo Avenue.

Other highly regarded Argentine writers, poets and essayists include Estanislao del Campo, Eugenio Cambaceres, Pedro Bonifacio Palacios, Hugo Wast, Benito Lynch, Enrique Banchs, Oliverio Girondo, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Victoria Ocampo, Leopoldo Marechal, Silvina Ocampo, Roberto Arlt, Eduardo Mallea, Manuel Mujica Láinez, Ernesto Sábato, Silvina Bullrich, Rodolfo Walsh, María Elena Walsh, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Manuel Puig, Alejandra Pizarnik, and Osvaldo Soriano.^[303]

Music

Daniel Barenboim, Music Director of the Berlin State Opera; he previously served as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan.

Tango, a Rioplatense musical genre with European and African influences,^[304] is one of Argentina's international cultural symbols.^[305]
The golden age of tango (1930 to mid-1950s) mirrored that of jazz and swing in the United States, featuring large orchestras like those of Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo, Francisco Canaro, Julio de Caro and Juan d'Arienzo.^[306]
After 1955, virtuoso Astor Piazzolla popularized Nuevo tango, a subtler and more intellectual trend for the genre.^[306]
Tango enjoys worldwide popularity nowadays with groups like Gotan Project, Bajofondo and Tanghetto.

Argentina developed strong classical music and dance scenes that gave rise to renowned artists such as Alberto Ginastera, composer; Alberto Lysy, violinist; Martha Argerich and Eduardo Delgado, pianists; Daniel Barenboim, pianist and symphonic orchestra director; José Cura and Marcelo Álvarez, tenors; and to ballet dancers Jorge Donn, José Neglia, Norma Fontenla, Maximiliano Guerra, Paloma Herrera, Marianela Núñez, Iñaki Urlezaga and Julio Bocca.^[306]

Martha Argerich, widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the second half of the 20th century^[307]

A national Argentine folk style emerged in the 1930s from dozens of regional musical genres and went to influence the entirety of Latin American music. Some of its interpreters, like Atahualpa Yupanqui and Mercedes Sosa, achieved worldwide acclaim.

The romantic ballad genre included singers of international fame such as Sandro de América.

Argentine rock developed as a distinct musical style in the mid-1960s, when Buenos Aires and Rosario became cradles of aspiring musicians.
Founding bands like Los Gatos, Sui Generis, Almendra and Manal were followed by Seru Giran, Los Abuelos de la Nada, Soda Stereo and Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, with prominent artists including Gustavo Cerati, Litto Nebbia, Andrés Calamaro, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Charly García, Fito Páez and León Gieco.^[306]

Tenor saxophonist Leandro "Gato" Barbieri and composer and big band conductor Lalo Schifrin are among the most internationally successful Argentine jazz musicians.

Another popular musical genre at present is Cumbia villera is a subgenre of cumbia music originated in the slums of Argentina and popularized all over Latin America and the Latin communities abroad.^[308]

Theatre

Teatro Colón, ranked the third best opera house in the world.^[309]

Buenos Aires is one of the great theatre capitals of the world,^[310][311] with a scene of international caliber centered on Corrientes Avenue, "the street that never sleeps", sometimes referred to as an intellectual Broadway in Buenos Aires.^[312]Teatro Colón is a global landmark for opera and classical performances; its acoustics are considered among the world's top five.^[313][T] Other important theatrical venues include Teatro General San Martín, Cervantes, both in Buenos Aires City; Argentino in La Plata, El Círculo in Rosario, Independencia in Mendoza, and Libertador in Córdoba.
Griselda Gambaro, Copi, Roberto Cossa, Marco Denevi, Carlos Gorostiza, and Alberto Vaccarezza are a few of the most prominent Argentine playwrights.

Argentine theatre traces its origins to Viceroy Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo's creation of the colony's first theatre, La Ranchería, in 1783. In this stage, in 1786, a tragedy entitled Siripo had its premiere. Siripo is now a lost work (only the second act is conserved), and can be considered the first Argentine stage play, because it was written by Buenos Aires poet Manuel José de Lavardén, it was premiered in Buenos Aires, and its plot was inspired by an historical episode of the early colonization of the Río de la Plata Basin: the destruction of Sancti Spiritu colony by aboriginals in 1529. La Ranchería theatre operated until its destruction in a fire in 1792. The second theatre stage in Buenos Aires was Teatro Coliseo, opened in 1804 during the term of Viceroy Rafael de Sobremonte. It was the nation's longest-continuously operating stage. The musical creator of the Argentine National Anthem, Blas Parera, earned fame as a theatre score writer during the early 19th century. The genre suffered during the regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas, though it flourished alongside the economy later in the century. The national government gave Argentine theatre its initial impulse with the establishment of the Colón Theatre, in 1857, which hosted classical and operatic, as well as stage performances. Antonio Petalardo's successful 1871 gambit on the opening of the Teatro Opera, inspired others to fund the growing art in Argentina.

Cinema

The Argentine film industry has historically been one of the three most developed in Latin American cinema, along with those produced in Mexico and Brazil.^[314][315] Started in 1896; by the early 1930s it had already become Latin America's leading film producer, a place it kept until the early 1950s.^[316] The world's first animated feature films were made and released in Argentina, by cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, in 1917 and 1918.^[317]

Andy Muschietti, director of It, the highest-grossing horror film of all-time.^[318][319]

The art director of The Secret in Their Eyes won the Academy Award for that film.

Argentine films have achieved worldwide recognition: the country has won two Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, with The Official Story (1985) and The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) with seven nominations:

• 
  The Truce (La tregua) in 1974


• 
  Camila (Camila) in 1984


• 
  The Official Story (La historia oficial) in 1985


• 
  Tango (Tango) in 1998


• 
  Son of the Bride (El hijo de la novia) in 2001


• 
  The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) in 2009


• 
  Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes) in 2015

In addition, Argentine composers Luis Enrique Bacalov and Gustavo Santaolalla have been honored with Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2006 and 2007 nods and Armando Bo and Nicolás Giacobone have been honored with Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2015. Also, the Argentine French actress Bérénice Bejo received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2011 and won the César Award for Best Actress and won the Best Actress award in the Cannes Film Festival for her role in the film The Past.^[320]

Argentina also has won seventeen Goya Awards for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film with A King and His Movie (1986), A Place in the World (1992), Gatica, el mono (1993), Autumn Sun (1996), Ashes of Paradise (1997), The Lighthouse (1998), Burnt Money (2000), The Escape (2001), Intimate Stories (2003), Blessed by Fire (2005), The Hands (2006), XXY (2007), The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), Chinese Take-Away (2011), Wild Tales (2014), The Clan (2015) and The Distinguished Citizen (2016) being by far the most awarded in Latin America with twenty four nominations.

Many other Argentine films have been acclaimed by the international critique: Camila (1984), Man Facing Southeast (1986), A Place in the World (1992), Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes (1997), Nine Queens (2000), A Red Bear (2002), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), The Aura (2005), Chinese Take-Away (2011) and Wild Tales (2014) being some of them.

In 2013^[update] about 100 full-length motion pictures were being created annually.^[321]

Visual arts

Las Nereidas Font by Lola Mora

Some of the best-known Argentine painters are Cándido López and Florencio Molina Campos (Naïve style); Ernesto de la Cárcova and Eduardo Sívori (Realism); Fernando Fader (Impressionism); Pío Collivadino, Atilio Malinverno and Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós (Postimpressionism); Emilio Pettoruti (Cubism); Julio Barragán (Concretism and Cubism) Antonio Berni (Neofigurativism); Roberto Aizenberg and Xul Solar (Surrealism); Gyula Košice (Constructivism); Eduardo Mac Entyre (Generative art); Luis Seoane, Carlos Torrallardona, Luis Aquino, and Alfredo Gramajo Gutiérrez (Modernism); Lucio Fontana (Spatialism); Tomás Maldonado and Guillermo Kuitca (Abstract art); León Ferrari and Marta Minujín (Conceptual art); and Gustavo Cabral (Fantasy art).

In 1946 Gyula Košice and others created The Madí Movement in Argentina, which then spread to Europe and United States, where it had a significant impact.^[322]
Tomás Maldonado was one of the main theorists of the Ulm Model of design education, still highly influential globally.

Other Argentine artists of worldwide fame include Adolfo Bellocq, whose lithographs have been influential since the 1920s, and Benito Quinquela Martín, the quintessential port painter, inspired by the immigrant-bound La Boca neighborhood.

Internationally laureate sculptors Erminio Blotta, Lola Mora and Rogelio Yrurtia authored many of the classical evocative monuments of the Argentine cityscape.

Architecture

View of Bolívar Street facing the Cabildo and Diagonal Norte, on Buenos Aires' historical center. The city's characteristic convergence of diverse architectural styles can be seen, including Spanish Colonial, Beaux-Arts, and modernist architecture.

The colonization brought the Spanish Baroque architecture, which can still be appreciated in its simpler Rioplatense style in the reduction of San Ignacio Miní, the Cathedral of Córdoba, and the Cabildo of Luján. Italian and French influences increased at the beginning of the 19th century with strong eclectic overtones that gave the local architecture a unique feeling.^[323]

Numerous Argentine architects have enriched their own country's cityscape and those around the world: Juan Antonio Buschiazzo helped popularize Beaux-Arts architecture and Francisco Gianotti combined Art Nouveau with Italianate styles, each adding flair to Argentine cities during the early 20th century. Francisco Salamone and Viktor Sulčič left an Art Deco legacy, and Alejandro Bustillo created a prolific body of Neoclassical and Rationalist architecture. Alberto Prebisch and Amancio Williams were highly influenced by Le Corbusier, while Clorindo Testa introduced Brutalist architecture locally. César Pelli's and Patricio Pouchulu's Futurist creations have graced cities worldwide: Pelli's 1980s throwbacks to the Art Deco glory of the 1920s made him one of the world's most prestigious architects, with the Norwest Center and the Petronas Towers among his most celebrated creations.

Sport

Diego Maradona, one of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century

Pato is the national sport,^[324] an ancient horseback game locally originated in the early 1600s and predecessor of horseball.^[325][326] The most popular sport is football. Along with Brazil and France, the men's national team is the only one to have won the most important international triplet: World Cup, Confederations Cup, and Olympic Gold Medal. It has also won 14 Copas América, 6 Pan American Gold Medals and many other trophies.^[327]Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi are among the best players in the game's history.^[328]

The country's women's field hockey team Las Leonas, is one of the world's most successful with four Olympic medals, two World Cups, a World League and seven Champions Trophy.^[329]Luciana Aymar is recognized as the best female player in the history of the sport,^[330] being the only player to have received the FIH Player of the Year Award eight times.^[331]

Basketball is a very popular sport. The men's national team is the only one in the FIBA Americas zone that has won the quintuplet crown: World Championship, Olympic Gold Medal, Diamond Ball, Americas Championship, and Pan American Gold Medal. It has also conquered 13 South American Championships, and many other tournaments.^[332]Emanuel Ginóbili, Luis Scola, Andrés Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, Pablo Prigioni, Carlos Delfino and Juan Ignacio Sánchez are a few of the country's most acclaimed players, all of them part of the NBA.^[329] Argentina hosted the Basketball World Cup in 1950 and 1990.

Lionel Messi, five times FIFA Ballon d'Or winner, is the current captain of the Argentina national football team.

Rugby is another popular sport in Argentina. As of 2017^[update] the men's national team, known as 'Los Pumas' has competed at the Rugby World Cup each time it has been held, achieving their highest ever result in 2007 when they came third. Since 2012 the Los Pumas have competed against Australia, New Zealand & South Africa in The Rugby Championship, the premier international Rugby competition in the Southern Hemisphere. Since 2009 the secondary men's national team known as the 'Jaguares' has competed against the US, Canada, and Uruguay first teams in the Americas Rugby Championship, which Los Jaguares have won six out of eight times it has taken place.

Argentina has produced some of the most formidable champions for Boxing, including Carlos Monzón, the best middleweight in history;^[333]Pascual Pérez, one of the most decorated flyweight boxers of all times; Horacio Accavallo, the former WBA and WBC world flyweight champion; Víctor Galíndez, as of 2009^[update] record holder for consecutive world light heavyweight title defenses and Nicolino Locche, nicknamed "The Untouchable" for his masterful defense; they are all inductees into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.^[334]

Tennis has been quite popular among people of all ages. Guillermo Vilas is the greatest Latin American player of the Open Era,^[335] while Gabriela Sabatini is the most accomplished Argentine female player of all time—having reached #3 in the WTA Ranking,^[336] are both inductees into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.^[337]

Argentina reigns undisputed in Polo, having won more international championships than any other country and been seldom beaten since the 1930s.^[338] The Argentine Polo Championship is the sport's most important international team trophy. The country is home to most of the world's top players, among them Adolfo Cambiaso, the best in Polo history.^[339]

Historically, Argentina has had a strong showing within Auto racing. Juan Manuel Fangio was five times Formula One world champion under four different teams, winning 102 of his 184 international races, and is widely ranked as the greatest driver of all time.^[340] Other distinguished racers were Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Juan Gálvez, José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann.^[341]

Cuisine

Argentine beef as asado, a traditional dish

Besides many of the pasta, sausage and dessert dishes common to continental Europe, Argentines enjoy a wide variety of Indigenous and Criollo creations, including empanadas (a small stuffed pastry), locro (a mixture of corn, beans, meat, bacon, onion, and gourd), humita and mate.^[342]

The country has the highest consumption of red meat in the world,^[343] traditionally prepared as asado, the Argentine barbecue. It is made with various types of meats, often including chorizo, sweetbread, chitterlings, and blood sausage.^[344]

Common desserts include facturas (Viennese-style pastry), cakes and pancakes filled with dulce de leche (a sort of milk caramel jam), alfajores (shortbread cookies sandwiched together with chocolate, dulce de leche or a fruit paste), and tortas fritas (fried cakes)^[345]

Argentine wine, one of the world's finest,^[346] is an integral part of the local menu. Malbec, Torrontés, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Chardonnay are some of the most sought-after varieties.^[347]

National symbols

Some of Argentina's national symbols are defined by law, while others are traditions lacking formal designation.^[348]
The Flag of Argentina consists of three horizontal stripes equal in width and colored light blue, white and light blue, with the Sun of May in the center of the middle white stripe.^[349] The flag was designed by Manuel Belgrano in 1812; it was adopted as a national symbol on 20 July 1816.^[350] The Coat of Arms, which represents the union of the provinces, came into use in 1813 as the seal for official documents.^[351]
The Argentine National Anthem was written by Vicente López y Planes with music by Blas Parera, and was adopted in 1813.^[351] The National Cockade was first used during the May Revolution of 1810 and was made official two years later.^[352]The Virgin of Luján is Argentina's patron saint.^[353]

The hornero, living across most of the national territory, was chosen as the national bird in 1928 after a lower school survey.^[354]
The ceibo is the national floral emblem and national tree,^[348][355] while the quebracho colorado is the national forest tree.^[356]Rhodochrosite is known as the national gemstone.^[357]
The national sport is pato, an equestrian game that was popular among gauchos.^[324]

Argentine wine is the national liquor, and mate, the national infusion.^[358][359]Asado and locro are considered the national dishes.^[360][361]

See also

Book: Argentina

• Index of Argentina-related articles


• Outline of Argentina


• 
  


• 
  

Notes

References

Bibliography

Legal documents

Articles

Books

External links

Government

• 
  Official website (in Spanish)
  

Travel & tourism

• Argentina Ministry of Tourism


• National Institute of Tourism Promotion

Overview

• 
  "Argentina". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
  


• 
  Argentina at Curlie
  


• 
  Argentina at the Latin American Network Information Center


• 
  Argentina at the University Libraries – University of Colorado Boulder
  


• 
  Key Development Forecasts for Argentina at International Futures
  


• 
  Geographic data related to Argentina at OpenStreetMap
  


• 
  Wikimedia Atlas of Argentina
  

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