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40.09 million (2010)
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Buenos Aires
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3,761,274 sq.km (1,452,228 sq.mi) of which about three-quarters is located on the South American continent, the rest consists of a section of Antarctica and three groups of islands in the South Atlantic.
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The unit of currency is the peso ($).
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25th of May - Anniversary of the 1810 Revolution which led to formal independence from Spain on the 9th of July, 1816.
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The official language is Spanish. English is widely spoken, while other languages such as Italian, French and German derive their popularity from the large inmigrant population and cultural links with Europe.
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.gif) The flag consists of three horizontal stripes, two sky blue with a white stripe with the sun in the centre. This became the country's official flag when it formalized independence from Spain in 1816. The "Sun of May" in the centre was added in 1818 to depict the sun shining through the clouds of Buenos Aires on the 25th of May 1810, when Argentina established its first independent government.
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THE NAME:
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The Europeans were the first to visit Argentina. In 1516, a time when Spanish sailors were searching for precious metals, they sailed into a beautiful wide estuary which they named "Rio de la Plata" or river of silver. They called the land Argentina, after the Latin word meaning silvery.
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