Which South American country is divided into 26 states and a Federal District? Brazil.
Brazil’s federal structure contains 26 states plus the Federal District, which contains Brasília, the national capital. Together, these 27 federative units have their own administrations and representation in Brazil’s national Congress. The states are further divided into municipalities, while the Federal District performs both state-level and municipal functions.
The Federal District is not a state, although it has many comparable powers and its own executive, legislative and judicial organization. It cannot be divided into municipalities, so it is instead organized into administrative regions. This is why the precise wording is “26 states and one Federal District,” rather than 27 states.
A common mix-up is confusing Brazil’s states with its five broad geographic regions: North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and South. Those regions are statistical and geographic groupings, not additional levels of federal government. Brazil’s constitutional federation dates from the country’s republican development, while the present capital, Brasília, opened in 1960.