Mediaboss Marketing

Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble secosteroids responsible for increasing intestinal absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, and multiple other biological effects.[1] In humans, the most important compounds in this group are vitamin D3 (also known as cholecalciferol) and vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol).[2] Cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol can be ingested from the diet and from supplements.[2][3][4] Only a few foods contain vitamin D. The major natural source of the vitamin is synthesis of cholecalciferol in the skin from cholesterol through a chemical reaction that is dependent on sun exposure (specifically UVB radiation). Dietary recommendations typically assume that all of a person's vitamin D is taken by mouth, as sun exposure in the population is variable and recommendations about the amount of sun exposure that is safe are uncertain in view of the skin cancer risk.[5]

Vitamin D from the diet or skin synthesis is biologically inactive; enzymatic conversion (hydroxylation) in the liver and kidney is required for activation. As vitamin D can be synthesized in adequate amounts by most mammals exposed to sufficient sunlight, it is not an essential dietary factor, and so not technically a vitamin.[4] Instead it could be considered a hormone, with activation of the vitamin D pro-hormone resulting in the active form, calcitriol, which then produces effects via a nuclear receptor in multiple locations.[4] Cholecalciferol is converted in the liver to calcifediol (25-hydroxycholecalciferol); ergocalciferol is converted to 25-hydroxyergocalciferol. These two vitamin D metabolites (called 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D) are measured in serum to determine a person's vitamin D status.[6][7] Calcifediol is further hydroxylated by the kidneys to form calcitriol (also known as 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol), the biologically active form of vitamin D.[8] Calcitriol circulates as a hormone in the blood, having a major role regulating the concentration of calcium and phosphate, and promoting the healthy growth and remodeling of bone. Calcitriol also has other effects, including some on cell growth, neuromuscular and immune functions, and reduction of inflammation.[5]

Vitamin D has a significant role in calcium homeostasis and metabolism. Its discovery was due to effort to find the dietary substance lacking in children with rickets (the childhood form of osteomalacia).[9] Vitamin D supplements are given to treat or to prevent osteomalacia and rickets, but the evidence for other health effects of vitamin D supplementation in the general population is inconsistent.[10][11] The effect of vitamin D supplementation on mortality is not clear, with one meta-analysis finding a small decrease in mortality in elderly people,[12] and another concluding no clear justification exists for recommending supplementation for preventing many diseases, and that further research of similar design is unneeded in these areas.[13]

Several forms (vitamers) of vitamin D exist. The two major forms are vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol, and vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol; vitamin D without a subscript refers to either D2 or D3 or both. These are known collectively as calciferol.[14] Vitamin D2 was chemically characterized in 1931. In 1935, the chemical structure of vitamin D3 was established and proven to result from the ultraviolet irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol.[15]

Chemically, the various forms of vitamin D are secosteroids, i.e., steroids in which one of the bonds in the steroid rings is broken.[15] The structural difference between vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 is the side chain of D2 contains a double bond between carbons 22 and 23, and a methyl group on carbon 24.

The active vitamin D metabolite calcitriol mediates its biological effects by binding to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), which is principally located in the nuclei of target cells.[15] The binding of calcitriol to the VDR allows the VDR to act as a transcription factor that modulates the gene expression of transport proteins (such as TRPV6 and calbindin), which are involved in calcium absorption in the intestine.[17] The vitamin D receptor belongs to the nuclear receptor superfamily of steroid/thyroid hormone receptors, and VDRs are expressed by cells in most organs, including the brain, heart, skin, gonads, prostate, and breast.

VDR activation in the intestine, bone, kidney, and parathyroid gland cells leads to the maintenance of calcium and phosphorus levels in the blood (with the assistance of parathyroid hormone and calcitonin) and to the maintenance of bone content.[1]

One of the most important roles of vitamin D is to maintain skeletal calcium balance by promoting calcium absorption in the intestines, promoting bone resorption by increasing osteoclast number, maintaining calcium and phosphate levels for bone formation, and allowing proper functioning of parathyroid hormone to maintain serum calcium levels. Vitamin D deficiency can result in lower bone mineral density and an increased risk of reduced bone density (osteoporosis) or bone fracture because a lack of vitamin D alters mineral metabolism in the body.[18] Thus, vitamin D is also critical for bone remodeling through its role as a potent stimulator of bone resorption.[18]

The VDR regulates cell proliferation and differentiation. Vitamin D also affects the immune system, and VDRs are expressed in several white blood cells, including monocytes and activated T and B cells.[19] In vitro, vitamin D increases expression of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene in adrenal medullary cells, and affects the synthesis of neurotrophic factors, nitric oxide synthase, and glutathione.[20]

A diet deficient in vitamin D in conjunction with inadequate sun exposure causes osteomalacia (or rickets when it occurs in children), which is a softening of the bones. In the developed world, this is a rare disease.[21][22] However, vitamin D deficiency has become a worldwide problem in the elderly and remains common in children and adults.[23][24] Low blood calcifediol (25-hydroxy-vitamin D) can result from avoiding the sun.[25] Deficiency results in impaired bone mineralization and bone damage which leads to bone-softening diseases,[26][27] including rickets and osteomalacia. Being deficient in vitamin D can cause intestinal absorption of dietary calcium to fall to 15%.[1] When not deficient, an individual usually absorbs between 60-80%.[1]

Rickets, a childhood disease, is characterized by impeded growth and soft, weak, deformed long bones that bend and bow under their weight as children start to walk. This condition is characterized by bow legs,[27] which can be caused by calcium or phosphorus deficiency, as well as a lack of vitamin D; today, it is largely found in low-income countries in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East[28] and in those with genetic disorders such as pseudovitamin D deficiency rickets.[29]

Maternal vitamin D deficiency may cause overt bone disease from before birth and impairment of bone quality after birth.[30][31] Nutritional rickets exists in countries with intense year-round sunlight such as Nigeria and can occur without vitamin D deficiency.[32][33]

Although rickets and osteomalacia are now rare in Britain, outbreaks have happened in some immigrant communities in which osteomalacia sufferers included women with seemingly adequate daylight outdoor exposure wearing Western clothing.[34] Having darker skin and reduced exposure to sunshine did not produce rickets unless the diet deviated from a Western omnivore pattern characterized by high intakes of meat, fish, and eggs, and low intakes of high-extraction cereals.[35][36][37] The dietary risk factors for rickets include abstaining from animal foods.[34][38]

Vitamin D deficiency remains the main cause of rickets among young infants in most countries, because breast milk is low in vitamin D and social customs and climatic conditions can prevent adequate sun exposure. In sunny countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Bangladesh, where rickets occurs among older toddlers and children, it has been attributed to low dietary calcium intakes, which are characteristic of cereal-based diets with limited access to dairy products.[37]

Rickets was formerly a major public health problem among the US population; in Denver, where ultraviolet rays are about 20% stronger than at sea level on the same latitude,[39] almost two-thirds of 500 children had mild rickets in the late 1920s.[40] An increase in the proportion of animal protein[38][41] in the 20th century American diet coupled with increased consumption of milk[42][43] fortified with relatively small quantities of vitamin D coincided with a dramatic decline in the number of rickets cases.[1] Also, in the United States and Canada, vitamin D-fortified milk, infant vitamin supplements, and vitamin supplements have helped to eradicate the majority of cases of rickets for children with fat malabsorption conditions.[27]

Osteomalacia is a disease in adults that results from vitamin D deficiency. Characteristics of this disease are softening of the bones, leading to bending of the spine, bowing of the legs, proximal muscle weakness, bone fragility, and increased risk for fractures.[44] Osteomalacia reduces calcium absorption and increases calcium loss from bone, which increases the risk for bone fractures. Osteomalacia is usually present when 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are less than about 10ng/mL.[2] Although the effects of osteomalacia are thought to contribute to chronic musculoskeletal pain,[45] there is no persuasive evidence of lower vitamin D levels in chronic pain sufferers[46] or that supplementation alleviates chronic nonspecific musculoskeletal pain.[47]

Dark-skinned people living in temperate climates have been shown to have low vitamin D levels but the significance of this is not certain.[48][49][50] Dark-skinned people may be less efficient at making vitamin D because melanin in the skin hinders vitamin D synthesis.[51]

The effects of vitamin D supplementation on health are uncertain.[11][52] A 2013 review did not find any effect from supplementation on the rates of disease, other than a tentative decrease in mortality in the elderly.[53] Vitamin D supplements do not alter the outcomes for myocardial infarction, stroke or cerebrovascular disease, cancer, bone fractures or knee osteoarthritis.[54][55] Low vitamin D levels may result from disease rather than cause disease.[53]

A United States Institute of Medicine report states: "Outcomes related to cancer, cardiovascular disease and hypertension, and diabetes and metabolic syndrome, falls and physical performance, immune functioning and autoimmune disorders, infections, neuropsychological functioning, and preeclampsia could not be linked reliably with calcium or vitamin D intake and were often conflicting."[56]:5 Some researchers claim the IOM was too definitive in its recommendations and made a mathematical mistake when calculating the blood level of vitamin D associated with bone health.[57] Members of the IOM panel maintain that they used a "standard procedure for dietary recommendations" and that the report is solidly based on the data. Research on vitamin D supplements, including large-scale clinical trials, is continuing.[57]

Vitamin D3 supplementation has been tentatively found to lead to a reduced risk of death in the elderly,[12][53] but the effect has not been deemed pronounced or certain enough to make taking supplements recommendable.[13] Other forms (vitamin D2, alfacalcidol, and calcitriol) do not appear to have any beneficial effects with regard to the risk of death.[12] High blood levels appear to be associated with a lower risk of death, but it is unclear if supplementation can result in this benefit.[58] Both an excess and a deficiency in vitamin D appear to cause abnormal functioning and premature aging.[59][60][61] The relationship between serum calcifediol level and all-cause mortality is parabolic.[56] Harm from vitamin D appears to occur at a lower vitamin D level in the black population than in the white population.[56]:435

In general, no good evidence supports the commonly held belief that vitamin D supplements can help prevent osteoporosis.[13] Its general use for prevention of this disease in those without vitamin D deficiency is thus likely not needed.[62] For older people with osteoporosis, taking vitamin D with calcium may help prevent hip fractures, but it also slightly increases the risk of stomach and kidney problems.[63] Supplementation with higher doses of vitamin D, in those older than 65 years, may decrease fracture risk.[64] The effect is small or none for people living independently.[65][66] Low serum vitamin D levels have been associated with falls, and low bone mineral density.[67] Taking extra vitamin D, however, does not appear to change the risk.[68] Athletes who are vitamin D deficient are at an increased risk of stress fractures and/or major breaks, particularly those engaging in contact sports. The greatest benefit with supplementation is seen in athletes who are deficient (25(OH)D serum levels <30ng/mL), or severely deficient (25(OH)D serum levels <25ng/mL). Incremental decreases in risks are observed with rising serum 25(OH)D concentrations plateauing at 50ng/mL with no additional benefits seen in levels beyond this point.[69]

Because it found mounting evidence for a benefit to bone health, though it had not found good evidence of other benefits, the US Food and Drug Administration has required manufacturers to declare the amount of vitamin D on nutrition facts labels, as "nutrients of public health significance", since May 2016. By a proposed deadline extension, small manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales will have to comply by 1 Jan 2021, while larger ones have to comply by 1 Jan 2020.[70]

Vitamin D supplements have been widely marketed for their claimed anticancer properties.[71] Associations have been shown in observational studies between low vitamin D levels and the risk of development of certain cancers.[72] It is unclear, however, if taking additional vitamin D in the diet or as supplements affects the risk of cancer. Reviews have described the evidence as being "inconsistent, inconclusive as to causality, and insufficient to inform nutritional requirements"[56] and "not sufficiently robust to draw conclusions".[65] One 2014 review found that supplements had no significant effect on cancer risk.[13] Another 2014 review concluded that vitamin D3 may decrease the risk of death from cancer (one fewer death in 150 people treated over 5 years), but concerns with the quality of the data were noted.[73] Insufficient evidence exists to recommend vitamin D supplements for people with cancer, although some evidence suggests that low vitamin D may be associated with a worse outcome for some cancers,[74] and that higher 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels at the time of diagnosis are associated with better outcomes.[75]

Taking vitamin D supplements does not meaningfully reduce the risk of stroke, cerebrovascular disease, cardial infarction, or ischaemic heart disease.[13] Supplementation may have no effect on blood pressure.[76]

In general, vitamin D functions to activate the innate and dampen the adaptive immune systems.[77] Deficiency has been linked to increased risk or severity of viral infections, including HIV.[78][79] Low levels of vitamin D appear to be a risk factor for tuberculosis,[80] and historically it was used as a treatment.[81] Supplementation slightly decreases the risk of respiratory tract infections and the exacerbation of asthma.[82][83][84] Evidence is lacking on whether it does so in children under five years of age.[85] No clinical trials have been done to assess its effect on preventing other infections, such as malaria.

Although tentative data link low levels of vitamin D to asthma, evidence to support a beneficial effect on asthmatics from supplementation is inconclusive.[86] Accordingly, supplementation is not currently recommended for treatment or prevention of asthma.[87] Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis incidence have been linked, but it is not clear what the nature of any causal relationship might be.[88] Two systemic reviews concluded that the evidence for vitamin D supplementation being helpful for treating people with multiple sclerosis is inconclusive.[89][90]

Low levels of vitamin D are associated with two major forms of human Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.[91] However, further studies are required to determine its significance and the potential role of vitamin D axis in IBD.[91][92]

Diabetes -- A systematic review of 2014 concluded that the available studies show no evidence of vitamin D3 supplementation having an effect on glucose homeostasis or diabetes prevention.[93] A review article of 2016 reported that while there is increasing evidence that vitamin D deficiency may be a risk factor for diabetes, over-all evidence regarding vitamin D levels and diabetes mellitus is contradictory, requiring further studies.[94]

Depression -- Clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation for depressive symptoms have generally been of low quality and show no overall effect, although subgroup analysis showed supplementation for participants with clinically significant depressive symptoms or depressive disorder had a moderate effect.[95]

Cognition and dementia -- A systematic review of clinical studies found an association between low vitamin D levels with cognitive impairment and a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. However, lower vitamin D concentrations are also associated with poor nutrition and spending less time outdoors. Therefore, alternative explanations for the increase in cognitive impairment exist and hence a direct causal relationship between vitamin D levels and cognition could not be established.[96]

Pregnancy -- Low levels of vitamin D in pregnancy are associated with gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and small (for gestational age) infants.[97] Although taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy raises blood levels of vitamin D in the mother at term,[98] the extent of benefits for the mother or baby is unclear.[97][98][99] Pregnant women who take an adequate amount of vitamin D during gestation may experience a lower risk of pre-eclampsia[98] and positive immune effects.[100] A 2018 review found that supplements may reduce the risk of undersized babies and of their poor rate of growth.[101] Pregnant women often do not take the recommended amount of vitamin D.[100]

Weight loss -- Though hypothesized that vitamin D supplementation may be an effective treatment for obesity apart from calorie restriction, one systematic review found no association of supplementation with body weight or fat mass.[102] A 2016 meta-analysis found that circulating vitamin D status was improved by weight loss, indicating that fat mass may be inversely associated with blood levels of vitamin D.[103]

Governmental regulatory agencies stipulate for the food and dietary supplement industries certain health claims as allowable as statements on packaging.

European Food Safety Authority

US Food and Drug Administration

Health Canada

Other possible agencies with claim guidance: Japan FOSHU[108] and Australia-New Zealand.[109]

Conversion: 1g = 40IU.

Various institutions have proposed different recommendations for the amount of daily intake of vitamin D. These vary according to precise definition, age, pregnancy or lactation, and the extent assumptions are made regarding skin synthesis of vitamin D.[56][110][111][112]

The dietary reference intake for vitamin D issued in 2010 by the Institute of Medicine (renamed National Academy of Medicine in 2015), superseded previous recommendations which were expressed in terms of Adequate Intake. The recommendations were formed assuming the individual has no skin synthesis of vitamin D because of inadequate sun exposure. The reference intake for vitamin D refers to total intake from food, beverages and supplements, and assumes that calcium requirements are being met.[56]:5 The tolerable upper intake level (UL) is defined as "the highest average daily intake of a nutrient that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects for nearly all persons in the general population."[56]:403 Although ULs are believed to be safe, information on the long-term effects is incomplete and these levels of intake are not recommended for long-term consumption.[56]:403:433

For U.S food and dietary supplement labeling purposes, the amount in a serving is expressed as a percent of Daily Value (%DV). For vitamin D labeling purposes, 100% of the Daily Value was 400 IU (10 g), but as of May 27, 2016 it was revised to 800 IU (20 g) to bring it into agreement with the RDA.[114] The deadline to be in compliance was extended by the FDA to January 1, 2020 for large companies and January 1, 2021 for small companies.[115]

Health Canada published recommended dietary allowances (RDA) and tolerable upper intake levels for vitamin D in 2012[110] based on the Institute of Medicine report.[56]

Australia and New Zealand published nutrient reference values including guidelines for dietary vitamin D intake in 2005.[111] About a third of Australians have vitamin D deficiency.[116]

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2016[112] reviewed the current evidence, finding the relationship between serum 25(OH)D concentration and musculoskeletal health outcomes is widely variable. They considered that average requirements and population reference intakes values for vitamin D cannot be derived, and that a serum 25(OH)D concentration of 50 nmol/L was a suitable target value. For all people over the age of 1, including women who are pregnant or lactating, they set an adequate intake of 15 g/day (600 IU).[112]

The EFSA reviewed safe levels of intake in 2012,[113] setting the tolerable upper limit for adults at 100 g/day (4000 IU), a similar conclusion as the IOM.

The UK National Health Service recommends babies and young children aged six months to five years, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and sun-deprived elderly people should take daily vitamin supplements to ensure sufficient vitamin D intake.[117] In July 2016, Public Health England recommended that everyone consider taking a daily supplement containing 10g of vitamin D during autumn and winter because of inadequate sunlight for vitamin D synthesis.[118]

The Swedish Food Administration recommends a daily intake of 10 g (400 IU) of vitamin D3 for children and adults up to 75 years, and 20 g (800 IU) for adults 75 and older.[119]

Non-government organisations in Europe have made their own recommendations. The German Society for Nutrition recommends 20g.[120] The European Menopause and Andropause Society recommends postmenopausal women consume15g (600 IU) until age 70, and 20g (800 IU) from age 71. This dose should be increased to 100g (4,000 IU) in some patients with very low vitamin D status or in case of co-morbid conditions.[121]

Although vitamin D is not present naturally in most foods,[2][4] it is commonly added as a fortification in manufactured foods. In some countries, staple foods are artificially fortified with vitamin D.[122]

In general, vitamin D2 is found in fungi and vitamin D3 is found in animals.[123][124] Vitamin D2 is produced by ultraviolet irradiation of ergosterol found in many fungi. The vitamin D2 content in mushrooms and Cladina arbuscula, a lichen, increase with exposure to ultraviolet light.[125][126] This process is emulated by industrial ultraviolet lamps, concentrating vitamin D2 levels to higher levels.[124]

The United States Department of Agriculture reports D2 and D3 content combined in one value.

Manufactured foods fortified with Vitamin D include some fruit juices and fruit juice drinks, meal replacement energy bars, soy protein-based beverages, certain cheese and cheese products, flour products, infant formulas, many breakfast cereals, and milk.[128][129]

In 2016 in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amended food additive regulations for milk fortification,[130] stating that vitamin D3 levels not exceed 42 IU vitamin D per 100 g (400 IU per US quart) of dairy milk, 84 IU of vitamin D2 per 100 g (800 IU per quart) of plant milks, and 89 IU per 100 g (800 IU per quart) in plant-based yogurts.[131] Plant milks are defined as beverages made from soy, almond, rice, among other plant sources intended as alternatives to dairy milk.

While some studies have found that vitamin D3 raises 25(OH)D blood levels faster and remains active in the body longer,[132][133] others contend that vitamin D2 sources are equally bioavailable and effective as D3 for raising and sustaining 25(OH)D.[124][134][135]

Vitamin D content in typical foods is reduced variably by cooking. Boiled, fried and baked foods retained 6989% of original vitamin D.[136]

> 75

50-74

25-49

Recommendations on recommended 25(OH)D serum levels vary across authorities, and vary based on factors like age.[5] US labs generally report 25(OH)D levels in ng/mL. Other countries often use nmol/L. Oneng/mL is approximately equal to 2.5nmol/L.

A 2014 review concluded that the most advantageous serum levels for 25(OH)D for all outcomes appeared to be close to 30ng/mL (75 nmol/L).[139] The optimal vitamin D levels are still controversial and another review concluded that ranges from 30 to 40ng/mL (75 to 100nmol/L) were to be recommended for athletes.[140] Part of the controversy is because numerous studies have found differences in serum levels of 25(OH)D between ethnic groups; studies point to genetic as well as environmental reasons behind these variations.[141] Supplementation to achieve these standard levels could cause harmful vascular calcification.[50]

A 2012 meta-analysis showed that the risk of cardiovascular diseases increases when blood levels of vitamin D are lowest in a range of 8 to 24ng/mL (20 to 60nmol/L), although results among the studies analyzed were inconsistent.[142]

In 2011 an IOM committee concluded a serum 25(OH)D level of 20ng/mL (50nmol/L) is needed for bone and overall health. The dietary reference intakes for vitamin D are chosen with a margin of safety and 'overshoot' the targeted serum value to ensure the specified levels of intake achieve the desired serum 25(OH)D levels in almost all persons. No contributions to serum 25(OH)D level are assumed from sun exposure and the recommendations are fully applicable to people with dark skin or negligible exposure to sunlight. The Institute found serum 25(OH)D concentrations above 30ng/mL (75nmol/L) are "not consistently associated with increased benefit". Serum 25(OH)D levels above 50ng/mL (125nmol/L) may be cause for concern. However, some people with serum 25(OH)D between 30 and 50ng/mL (75nmol/L-125nmol/L) will also have inadequate vitamin D.[56]

Vitamin D toxicity is rare.[24] It is caused by supplementing with high doses of vitamin D rather than sunlight. The threshold for vitamin D toxicity has not been established; however, according to some research, the tolerable upper intake level (UL) is 4,000 IU/day for ages 971[143] (100g/day), while other research concludes that, in healthy adults, sustained intake of more than 1250g/day (50,000IU) can produce overt toxicity after several months and can increase serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to 150ng/mL and greater.[24][144] Those with certain medical conditions, such as primary hyperparathyroidism,[145] are far more sensitive to vitamin D and develop hypercalcemia in response to any increase in vitamin D nutrition, while maternal hypercalcemia during pregnancy may increase fetal sensitivity to effects of vitamin D and lead to a syndrome of mental retardation and facial deformities.[145][146]

A review published in 2015 noted that adverse effects have been reported only at 25(OH)D serum concentrations above 200 nmol/L.[140]

Published cases of toxicity involving hypercalcemia in which the vitamin D dose and the 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels are known all involve an intake of 40,000IU (1,000g) per day.[145]

Pregnant or breastfeeding women should consult a doctor before taking a vitamin D supplement. The FDA advised manufacturers of liquid vitamin D supplements that droppers accompanying these products should be clearly and accurately marked for 400 international units (1 IU is the biological equivalent of 25ng cholecalciferol/ergocalciferol). In addition, for products intended for infants, the FDA recommends the dropper hold no more than 400 IU.[147] For infants (birth to 12 months), the tolerable upper limit (maximum amount that can be tolerated without harm) is set at 25g/day (1,000IU). One thousand micrograms per day in infants has produced toxicity within one month.[144] After being commissioned by the Canadian and American governments, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) as of 30November2010[update], has increased the tolerable upper limit (UL) to 2,500IU per day for ages 13 years, 3,000IU per day for ages 48 years and 4,000IU per day for ages 971+ years (including pregnant or lactating women).[143]

Calcitriol itself is auto-regulated in a negative feedback cycle, and is also affected by parathyroid hormone, fibroblast growth factor 23, cytokines, calcium, and phosphate.[148]

Vitamin D overdose causes hypercalcemia, which is a strong indication of vitamin D toxicity this can be noted with an increase in urination and thirst. If hypercalcemia is not treated, it results in excess deposits of calcium in soft tissues and organs such as the kidneys, liver, and heart, resulting in pain and organ damage.[24][27][44]

The main symptoms of vitamin D overdose which are those of hypercalcemia including anorexia, nausea, and vomiting. These may be followed by polyuria, polydipsia, weakness, insomnia, nervousness, pruritus and ultimately renal failure. Furthermore, proteinuria, urinary casts, azotemia, and metastatic calcification (especially in the kidneys) may develop.[144] Other symptoms of vitamin D toxicity include mental retardation in young children, abnormal bone growth and formation, diarrhea, irritability, weight loss, and severe depression.[24][44]

Vitamin D toxicity is treated by discontinuing vitamin D supplementation and restricting calcium intake. Kidney damage may be irreversible. Exposure to sunlight for extended periods of time does not normally cause vitamin D toxicity. The concentrations of vitamin D precursors produced in the skin reach an equilibrium, and any further vitamin D produced is degraded.[145]

Synthesis of vitamin D in nature is dependent on the presence of UV radiation and subsequent activation in liver and in kidney. Many animals synthesize vitamin D3 from 7-dehydrocholesterol, and many fungi synthesize vitamin D2 from ergosterol.[123][124]

Click on icon in lower right corner to open.Click on genes, proteins and metabolites below to link to respective articles. [ 1]

The transformation that converts 7-dehydrocholesterol to vitamin D3 occurs in two steps.[149][150] First, 7-dehydrocholesterol is photolyzed by ultraviolet light in a 6-electron conrotatory ring-opening electrocyclic reaction; the product is previtaminD3. Second, previtaminD3 spontaneously isomerizes to vitaminD3 (cholecalciferol) in an antarafacial sigmatropic [1,7] hydride shift. At room temperature, the transformation of previtaminD3 to vitamin D3 in an organic solvent takes about 12 days to complete. The conversion of previtaminD3 to vitamin D3 in the skin is about 10 times faster than in an organic solvent.[151]

The conversion from ergosterol to vitamin D2 follows a similar procedure, forming previtaminD2 by photolysis, which isomerizes to vitamin D2.[152] The transformation of previtaminD2 to vitamin D2 in methanol has a rate comparable to that of previtaminD3. The process is faster in white button mushrooms.[153](fig. 3)

Vitamin D3 is produced photochemically from 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin of most vertebrate animals, including humans.[154] The precursor of vitamin D3, 7-dehydrocholesterol is produced in relatively large quantities. 7-Dehydrocholesterol reacts with UVB light at wavelengths between 270 and 300nm, with peak synthesis occurring between 295 and 297nm.[155] These wavelengths are present in sunlight, as well as in the light emitted by the UV lamps in tanning beds (which produce ultraviolet primarily in the UVA spectrum, but typically produce 4% to 10% of the total UV emissions as UVB). Exposure to light through windows is insufficient because glass almost completely blocks UVB light.[156][157]

Adequate amounts of vitamin D can be produced with moderate sun exposure to the face, arms and legs, averaging 530 minutes twice per week, or approximately 25% of the time for minimal sunburn. The darker the skin, and the weaker the sunlight, the more minutes of exposure are needed. Vitamin D overdose is impossible from UV exposure; the skin reaches an equilibrium where the vitamin degrades as fast as it is created.[24][158][159]

Sunscreen absorbs or reflects ultraviolet light and prevents much of it from reaching the skin.[160] Sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 8 based on the UVB spectrum decreases vitamin D synthetic capacity by 95%, and SPF 15 decreases it by 98%.[161]

The skin consists of two primary layers: the inner layer called the dermis, composed largely of connective tissue, and the outer, thinner epidermis.[162] Thick epidermis in the soles and palms consists of five strata; from outer to inner, they are: the stratum corneum, stratum lucidum, stratum granulosum, stratum spinosum, and stratum basale. Vitamin D is produced in the keratinocytes[163] of two innermost strata, the stratum basale and stratum spinosum.[160]

Vitamin D can be synthesized only by a photochemical process. Phytoplankton in the ocean (such as coccolithophore and Emiliania huxleyi) have been photosynthesizing vitamin D for more than 500 million years. Primitive vertebrates in the ocean could absorb calcium from the ocean into their skeletons and eat plankton rich in vitamin D.

Land vertebrates required another source of vitamin D other than plants for their calcified skeletons. They had to either ingest it or be exposed to sunlight to photosynthesize it in their skin.[123][151] Land vertebrates have been photosynthesizing vitamin D for more than 350 million years.[164]

In birds and fur-bearing mammals, fur or feathers block UV rays from reaching the skin. Instead, vitamin D is created from oily secretions of the skin deposited onto the feathers or fur, and is obtained orally during grooming.[165] However, some animals, such as the naked mole-rat, are naturally cholecalciferol-deficient, as serum 25-OH vitamin D levels are undetectable.[166]

Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is produced industrially by exposing 7-dehydrocholesterol to UVB light, followed by purification.[167] The 7-dehydrocholesterol is a natural substance in fish organs, especially the liver,[168] or in wool grease (lanolin) from sheep. Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) is produced in a similar way using ergosterol from yeast or mushrooms as a starting material.[167][124]

Vitamin D is carried in the bloodstream to the liver, where it is converted into the prohormone calcifediol. Circulating calcifediol may then be converted into calcitriol, the biologically active form of vitamin D, in the kidneys.[169]

Whether it is made in the skin or ingested, Vitamin D is hydroxylated in the liver at position 25 (upper right of the molecule) to form 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (calcifediol or 25(OH)D).[170] This reaction is catalyzed by the microsomal enzyme vitamin D 25-hydroxylase, the product of the CYP2R1 human gene, and expressed by hepatocytes.[171] Once made, the product is released into the plasma, where it is bound to an -globulin carrier protein named the vitamin D-binding protein.[172]

Calcifediol is transported to the proximal tubules of the kidneys, where it is hydroxylated at the 1- position (lower right of the molecule) to form calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, 1,25(OH)2D). The conversion of calcifediol to calcitriol is catalyzed by the enzyme 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 1-alpha-hydroxylase, which is the product of the CYP27B1 human gene. The activity of CYP27B1 is increased by parathyroid hormone, and also by low calcium or phosphate.[4][169]

Following the final converting step in the kidney, calcitriol is released into the circulation. By binding to vitamin D-binding protein, calcitriol is transported throughout the body, including to the classical target organs of intestine, kidney and bone.[15] Calcitriol is the most potent natural ligand of the vitamin D receptor, which mediates most of the physiological actions of vitamin D.[4][169]

In addition to the kidneys, calcitriol is also synthesized by certain other cells including monocyte-macrophages in the immune system. When synthesized by monocyte-macrophages, calcitriol acts locally as a cytokine, modulating body defenses against microbial invaders by stimulating the innate immune system.[169]

The activity of calcifediol and calcitriol can be reduced by hydroxylation at position 24 by vitamin D3 24-hydroxylase, forming secalciferol and calcitetrol respecively.[170]

VitaminD2 (ergocalciferol) and VitaminD3 (cholecaliferol) share a similar mechanism of action as outlined above.[170] Metabolites produced by vitamin D2 is sometimes named with a er- or ergo prefix to differentiate them from the D3-based counterparts.[173] Nevertheless, these differences are present in the metabolism of VitaminD2 and VitaminD3:[170]

American researchers Elmer McCollum and Marguerite Davis in 1914[9] discovered a substance in cod liver oil which later was called "vitamin A". British doctor Edward Mellanby noticed dogs that were fed cod liver oil did not develop rickets and concluded vitamin A, or a closely associated factor, could prevent the disease. In 1922, Elmer McCollum tested modified cod liver oil in which the vitamin A had been destroyed.[9] The modified oil cured the sick dogs, so McCollum concluded the factor in cod liver oil which cured rickets was distinct from vitamin A. He called it vitamin D because it was the fourth vitamin to be named.[176][177][178] It was not initially realized that, unlike other vitamins, vitamin D can be synthesised by humans through exposure to UV light.

In 1925,[9] it was established that when 7-dehydrocholesterol is irradiated with light, a form of a fat-soluble vitamin is produced (now known as D3). Alfred Fabian Hess stated: "Light equals vitamin D."[179] Adolf Windaus, at the University of Gttingen in Germany, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1928 for his work on the constitution of sterols and their connection with vitamins.[180] In 1929, a group at NIMR in Hampstead, London, were working on the structure of vitamin D, which was still unknown, as well as the structure of steroids. A meeting took place with J.B.S. Haldane, J.D. Bernal, and Dorothy Crowfoot to discuss possible structures, which contributed to bringing a team together. X-ray crystallography demonstrated the sterol molecules were flat, not as proposed by the German team led by Windaus. In 1932, Otto Rosenheim and Harold King published a paper putting forward structures for sterols and bile acids which found immediate acceptance.[181] The informal academic collaboration between the team members Robert Benedict Bourdillon, Otto Rosenheim, Harold King, and Kenneth Callow was very productive and led to the isolation and characterization of vitamin D.[182] At this time, the policy of the Medical Research Council was not to patent discoveries, believing the results of medical research should be open to everybody. In the 1930s, Windaus clarified further the chemical structure of vitamin D.[183]

In 1923, American biochemist Harry Steenbock at the University of Wisconsin demonstrated that irradiation by ultraviolet light increased the vitamin D content of foods and other organic materials.[184] After irradiating rodent food, Steenbock discovered the rodents were cured of rickets. A vitamin D deficiency is a known cause of rickets. Using $300 of his own money, Steenbock patented his invention. His irradiation technique was used for foodstuffs, most memorably for milk. By the expiration of his patent in 1945, rickets had been all but eliminated in the US.[185]

In 1969, after studying nuclear fragments of intestinal cells, a specific binding protein for Vitamin D called the Vitamin D Receptor was identified by Mark Haussler and Tony Norman.[186] In 197172, the further metabolism of vitamin D to active forms was discovered. In the liver, vitamin D was found to be converted to calcifediol. Calcifediol is then converted by the kidneys to calcitriol, the biologically active form of vitamin D.[8] Calcitriol circulates as a hormone in the blood, regulating the concentration of calcium and phosphate in the bloodstream and promoting the healthy growth and remodeling of bone. The vitamin D metabolites, calcifediol and calcitriol, were identified by competing teams led by Michael F. Holick in the laboratory of Hector DeLuca and by Tony Norman and colleagues.[187][188][189]

There is considerable research activity looking at effects of vitamin D and its metabolites in animal models, cell systems, gene expression studies, epidemiology and clinical therapeutics. These different types of studies can produce conflicting evidence as to the benefits of interventions with vitamin D.[190] One school of thought contends the human physiology is fine-tuned to an intake of 4,00012,000IU/day from sun exposure with concomitant serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of 40 to 80ng/mL[191] and this is required for optimal health. Proponents of this view, who include some members of the panel that drafted a now-superseded 1997 report on vitamin D from the IOM, contend the IOM's warning about serum concentrations above 50ng/mL lacks biological plausibility. They suggest, for some people, reducing the risk of preventable disease requires a higher level of vitamin D than that recommended by the IOM.[191][192]

The United States National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements established a Vitamin D Initiative in 2014 to track current research and provide education to consumers.[193] In their 2016 review, they recognise that a growing body of research suggests that vitamin D might play some role in the prevention and treatment of types 1 and 2 diabetes, glucose intolerance, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, and other medical conditions. They state further: "however, most evidence for these roles comes from in vitro, animal, and epidemiological studies, not the randomized clinical trials considered to be more definitive. Until such trials are conducted, the implications of the available evidence for public health and patient care will be debated".[5]

Some preliminary studies link low vitamin D levels with disease later in life.[194] Evidence as of 2013 is insufficient to determine whether vitamin D affects the risk of cancer.[195] One meta-analysis found a decrease in mortality in elderly people.[12] Another meta-analysis covering over 350,000 people concluded that vitamin D supplementation in unselected community-dwelling individuals does not reduce skeletal (total fracture) or non-skeletal outcomes (myocardial infarction, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, cerebrovascular disease, cancer) by more than 15%, and that further research trials with similar design are unlikely to change these conclusions.[13]

Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in the European population.[196] European research is assessing vitamin D intake levels in association with disease rates and policies of dietary recommendations, food fortification, vitamin D supplementation, and small amounts of sun exposure.[129]

Apart from VDR activation, various alternative mechanisms of action are under study, such as inhibition of signal transduction by hedgehog, a hormone involved in morphogenesis.[197]

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English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, it ultimately derives its name from the Anglia (Angeln) peninsula in the Baltic Sea. It is closely related to the Frisian languages, but its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic language), as well as by Latin and French.[6]

English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England and was a period in which the language was influenced by French. Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift.[8]

Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. Through all types of printed and electronic media, and spurred by the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation and law.

English is the third most spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish. It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned it as a second language than there are native speakers. English is the most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, and it is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch. English has a vast vocabulary, though counting how many words any language has is impossible. English speakers are called "Anglophones".

Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent marking pattern with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection, a fairly fixed SVO word order and a complex syntax. Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation. Despite noticeable variation among the accents and dialects of English used in different countries and regions in terms of phonetics and phonology, and sometimes also vocabulary, grammar and spelling English-speakers from around the world are able to communicate with one another with relative ease.

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English is an Indo-European language and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Old English originated from a Germanic tribal and linguistic continuum along the coast of the North Sea, whose languages are now known as the Anglo-Frisian subgroup within West Germanic. As such, the modern Frisian languages are the closest living relatives of Modern English. Low German/Low Saxon is also closely related, and sometimes English, the Frisian languages, and Low German are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic) languages, though this grouping remains debated. Old English evolved into Middle English, which in turn evolved into Modern English. Particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other Anglic languages, including Scots[18] and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy (Yola) dialects of Ireland.

Like Icelandic and Faroese, the development of English on the British Isles isolated it from the continental Germanic languages and influences, and has since undergone substantial evolution. English is thus not mutually intelligible with any continental Germanic language, differing in vocabulary, syntax, and phonology, although some, such as Dutch or Frisian, do show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages.

Unlike Icelandic or Faroese, the long history of invasions of the British Isles by other peoples and languages, particularly Old Norse and Norman French, left a profound mark of their own on the language, such that English shares substantial vocabulary and grammar similarities with many languages outside its linguistic clades, while also being unintelligible with any of those languages. Some scholars have even argued that English can be considered a mixed language or a creole a theory called the Middle English creole hypothesis. Although the high degree of influence from these languages on the vocabulary and grammar of Modern English is widely acknowledged, most specialists in language contact do not consider English to be a true mixed language.

English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares innovations with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German, and Swedish. These shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor called Proto-Germanic. Some shared features of Germanic languages include the use of modal verbs, the division of verbs into strong and weak classes, and the sound changes affecting Proto-Indo-European consonants, known as Grimm's and Verner's laws. English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic (see Phonological history of Old English Palatalization).

The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon (c. 5501066 CE). Old English developed from a set of North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken along the coasts of Frisia, Lower Saxony, Jutland, and Southern Sweden by Germanic tribes known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. In the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain as the Roman economy and administration collapsed. By the seventh century, the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in Britain, replacing the languages of Roman Britain (43409 CE): Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, and Latin, brought to Britain by the Roman occupation. England and English (originally nglaland and nglisc) are named after the Angles.

Old English was divided into four dialects: the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the ninth century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex, the West Saxon dialect became the standard written variety. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Cdmon's Hymn, is written in Northumbrian. Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the early period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms. It included the runic letters wynn and thorn , and the modified Latin letters eth , and ash .

Old English is very different from Modern English and difficult for 21st-century English speakers to understand. Its grammar was similar to that of modern German, and its closest relative is Old Frisian. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs had many more inflectional endings and forms, and word order was much freer than in Modern English. Modern English has case forms in pronouns (he, him, his) and a few verb endings (I have, he has), but Old English had case endings in nouns as well, and verbs had more person and number endings.[34]

The translation of Matthew 8:20 from 1000 CE shows examples of case endings (nominative plural, accusative plural, genitive singular) and a verb ending (present plural):

Although, from the beginning, Englishmen had three manners of speaking, southern, northern and midlands speech in the middle of the country, Nevertheless, through intermingling and mixing, first with Danes and then with Normans, amongst many the country language has arisen, and some use strange stammering, chattering, snarling, and grating gnashing.

John of Trevisa, ca. 1385

In the period from the 8th to the 12th century, Old English gradually transformed through language contact into Middle English. Middle English is often arbitrarily defined as beginning with the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, but it developed further in the period from 12001450.

First, the waves of Norse colonisation of northern parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries put Old English into intense contact with Old Norse, a North Germanic language. Norse influence was strongest in the Northeastern varieties of Old English spoken in the Danelaw area around York, which was the centre of Norse colonisation; today these features are still particularly present in Scots and Northern English. However the centre of norsified English seems to have been in the Midlands around Lindsey, and after 920 CE when Lindsey was reincorporated into the Anglo-Saxon polity, Norse features spread from there into English varieties that had not been in intense contact with Norse speakers. Some elements of Norse influence that persist in all English varieties today are the pronouns beginning with th- (they, them, their) which replaced the Anglo-Saxon pronouns with h- (hie, him, hera).

With the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the now norsified Old English language was subject to contact with the Old Norman language, a Romance language closely related to Modern French. The Norman language in England eventually developed into Anglo-Norman. Because Norman was spoken primarily by the elites and nobles, while the lower classes continued speaking Anglo-Saxon, the influence of Norman consisted of introducing a wide range of loanwords related to politics, legislation and prestigious social domains. Middle English also greatly simplified the inflectional system, probably in order to reconcile Old Norse and Old English, which were inflectionally different but morphologically similar. The distinction between nominative and accusative case was lost except in personal pronouns, the instrumental case was dropped, and the use of the genitive case was limited to describing possession. The inflectional system regularised many irregular inflectional forms, and gradually simplified the system of agreement, making word order less flexible. By the Wycliffe Bible of the 1380s, the passage Matthew 8:20 was written

Here the plural suffix -n on the verb have is still retained, but none of the case endings on the nouns are present.

By the 12th century Middle English was fully developed, integrating both Norse and Norman features; it continued to be spoken until the transition to early Modern English around 1500. Middle English literature includes Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. In the Middle English period, the use of regional dialects in writing proliferated, and dialect traits were even used for effect by authors such as Chaucer.

The next period in the history of English was Early Modern English (15001700). Early Modern English was characterised by the Great Vowel Shift (13501700), inflectional simplification, and linguistic standardisation.

The Great Vowel Shift affected the stressed long vowels of Middle English. It was a chain shift, meaning that each shift triggered a subsequent shift in the vowel system. Mid and open vowels were raised, and close vowels were broken into diphthongs. For example, the word bite was originally pronounced as the word beet is today, and the second vowel in the word about was pronounced as the word boot is today. The Great Vowel Shift explains many irregularities in spelling since English retains many spellings from Middle English, and it also explains why English vowel letters have very different pronunciations from the same letters in other languages.

English began to rise in prestige, relative to Norman French, during the reign of Henry V. Around 1430, the Court of Chancery in Westminster began using English in its official documents, and a new standard form of Middle English, known as Chancery Standard, developed from the dialects of London and the East Midlands. In 1476, William Caxton introduced the printing press to England and began publishing the first printed books in London, expanding the influence of this form of English. Literature from the Early Modern period includes the works of William Shakespeare and the translation of the Bible commissioned by King James I. Even after the vowel shift the language still sounded different from Modern English: for example, the consonant clusters /kn n sw/ in knight, gnat, and sword were still pronounced. Many of the grammatical features that a modern reader of Shakespeare might find quaint or archaic represent the distinct characteristics of Early Modern English.

In the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, written in Early Modern English, Matthew 8:20 says:

This exemplifies the loss of case and its effects on sentence structure (replacement with Subject-Verb-Object word order, and the use of of instead of the non-possessive genitive), and the introduction of loanwords from French (ayre) and word replacements (bird originally meaning "nestling" had replaced OE fugol).

By the late 18th century, the British Empire had facilitated the spread of English through its colonies and geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal education all contributed to English becoming the first truly global language. English also facilitated worldwide international communication. As England continued to form new colonies, these, in turn, became independent and developed their own norms for how to speak and write the language. English was adopted in North America, India, parts of Africa, Australasia, and many other regions. In the post-colonial period, some of the newly created nations that had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as the official language to avoid the political difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others.[49] In the 20th century the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States and its status as a superpower following the Second World War has, along with worldwide broadcasting in English by the BBC[52] and other broadcasters, significantly accelerated the spread of the language across the planet. By the 21st century, English was more widely spoken and written than any language has ever been.

A major feature in the early development of Modern English was the codification of explicit norms for standard usage, and their dissemination through official media such as public education and state-sponsored publications. In 1755 Samuel Johnson published his A Dictionary of the English Language which introduced a standard set of spelling conventions and usage norms. In 1828, Noah Webster published the American Dictionary of the English language in an effort to establish a norm for speaking and writing American English that was independent from the British standard. Within Britain, non-standard or lower class dialect features were increasingly stigmatised, leading to the quick spread of the prestige varieties among the middle classes.[56]

In terms of grammatical evolution, Modern English has now reached a stage where the loss of case is almost complete (case is now only found in pronouns, such as he and him, she and her, who and whom), and where SVO word-order is mostly fixed.[56] Some changes, such as the use of do-support have become universalised. (Earlier English did not use the word "do" as a general auxiliary as Modern English does; at first it was only used in question constructions where it was not obligatory.[57] Now, do-support with the verb have is becoming increasingly standardised.) The use of progressive forms in -ing, appears to be spreading to new constructions, and forms such as had been being built are becoming more common. Regularisation of irregular forms also slowly continues (e.g. dreamed instead of dreamt), and analytical alternatives to inflectional forms are becoming more common (e.g. more polite instead of politer). British English is also undergoing change under the influence of American English, fuelled by the strong presence of American English in the media and the prestige associated with the US as a world power.

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As of 2016, 400 million people spoke English as their first language, and 1.1 billion spoke it as a secondary language.[61] English is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers it may depending on the estimate used, be the most commonly spoken language in the world.[63][64] English is spoken by communities on every continent and on oceanic islands in all the major oceans.

The countries in which English is spoken can be grouped into different categories by how English is used in each country. The "inner circle" countries with many native speakers of English share an international standard of written English and jointly influence speech norms of English around the world. English does not belong to just one country, and it does not belong solely to descendants of English settlers. English is an official language of countries populated by few descendants of native speakers of English. It has also become by far the most important language of international communication when people who share no native language meet anywhere in the world.

Braj Kachru distinguishes countries where English is spoken with a three circles model. In his model, the "inner circle" countries are countries with large communities of native speakers of English, "outer circle" countries have small communities of native speakers of English but widespread use of English as a second language in education or broadcasting or for local official purposes, and "expanding circle" countries are countries where many learners learn English as a foreign language. Kachru bases his model on the history of how English spread in different countries, how users acquire English, and the range of uses English has in each country. The three circles change membership over time.

Countries with large communities of native speakers of English (the inner circle) include Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, where the majority speaks English, and South Africa, where a significant minority speaks English. The countries with the most native English speakers are, in descending order, the United States (at least 231 million), the United Kingdom (60 million),[70][71] Canada (19 million), Australia (at least 17 million), South Africa (4.8 million),[74] Ireland (4.2 million), and New Zealand (3.7 million).[75] In these countries, children of native speakers learn English from their parents, and local people who speak other languages or new immigrants learn English to communicate in their neighbourhoods and workplaces. The inner-circle countries provide the base from which English spreads to other countries in the world.

Estimates of the number of English speakers who are second language and foreign-language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to more than 1,000 million depending on how proficiency is defined. Linguist David Crystal estimates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. In Kachru's three-circles model, the "outer circle" countries are countries such as the Philippines, Jamaica, India, Pakistan, Singapore, and Nigeria with a much smaller proportion of native speakers of English but much use of English as a second language for education, government, or domestic business, and where English is routinely used for school instruction and official interactions with the government.

Those countries have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. They have many more speakers of English who acquire English in the process of growing up through day by day use and listening to broadcasting, especially if they attend schools where English is the medium of instruction. Varieties of English learned by speakers who are not native speakers born to English-speaking parents may be influenced, especially in their grammar, by the other languages spoken by those learners. Most of those varieties of English include words little used by native speakers of English in the inner-circle countries, and they may have grammatical and phonological differences from inner-circle varieties as well. The standard English of the inner-circle countries is often taken as a norm for use of English in the outer-circle countries.

In the three-circles model, countries such as Poland, China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Egypt, and other countries where English is taught as a foreign language make up the "expanding circle". The distinctions between English as a first language, as a second language, and as a foreign language are often debatable and may change in particular countries over time. For example, in the Netherlands and some other countries of Europe, knowledge of English as a second language is nearly universal, with over 80 percent of the population able to use it, and thus English is routinely used to communicate with foreigners and often in higher education. In these countries, although English is not used for government business, its widespread use puts them at the boundary between the "outer circle" and "expanding circle". English is unusual among world languages in how many of its users are not native speakers but speakers of English as a second or foreign language.

Many users of English in the expanding circle use it to communicate with other people from the expanding circle, so that interaction with native speakers of English plays no part in their decision to use English. Non-native varieties of English are widely used for international communication, and speakers of one such variety often encounter features of other varieties. Very often today a conversation in English anywhere in the world may include no native speakers of English at all, even while including speakers from several different countries.

Pie chart showing the percentage of native English speakers living in "inner circle" English-speaking countries. Native speakers are now substantially outnumbered worldwide by second-language speakers of English (not counted in this chart).

US (64.3%)

UK (16.7%)

Canada (5.3%)

Australia (4.7%)

South Africa (1.3%)

Ireland (1.1%)

New Zealand (1%)

Other (5.6%)

English is a pluricentric language, which means that no one national authority sets the standard for use of the language.[90] But English is not a divided language, despite a long-standing joke originally attributed to George Bernard Shaw that the United Kingdom and the United States are "two countries separated by a common language".[94] Spoken English, for example English used in broadcasting, generally follows national pronunciation standards that are also established by custom rather than by regulation. International broadcasters are usually identifiable as coming from one country rather than another through their accents, but newsreader scripts are also composed largely in international standard written English. The norms of standard written English are maintained purely by the consensus of educated English-speakers around the world, without any oversight by any government or international organisation.

American listeners generally readily understand most British broadcasting, and British listeners readily understand most American broadcasting. Most English speakers around the world can understand radio programmes, television programmes, and films from many parts of the English-speaking world. Both standard and non-standard varieties of English can include both formal or informal styles, distinguished by word choice and syntax and use both technical and non-technical registers.

The settlement history of the English-speaking inner circle countries outside Britain helped level dialect distinctions and produce koineised forms of English in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The majority of immigrants to the United States without British ancestry rapidly adopted English after arrival. Now the majority of the United States population are monolingual English speakers, although English has been given official status by only 30 of the 50 state governments of the US.[101][102]

English has ceased to be an "English language" in the sense of belonging only to people who are ethnically English.[103] Use of English is growing country-by-country internally and for international communication. Most people learn English for practical rather than ideological reasons. Many speakers of English in Africa have become part of an "Afro-Saxon" language community that unites Africans from different countries.

As decolonisation proceeded throughout the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s, former colonies often did not reject English but rather continued to use it as independent countries setting their own language policies. For example, the view of the English language among many Indians has gone from associating it with colonialism to associating it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India. English is also widely used in media and literature, and the number of English language books published annually in India is the third largest in the world after the US and UK. However English is rarely spoken as a first language, numbering only around a couple hundred-thousand people, and less than 5% of the population speak fluent English in India.[110][111] David Crystal claimed in 2004 that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world, but the number of English speakers in India is very uncertain, with most scholars concluding that the United States still has more speakers of English than India.

Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is also regarded as the first world language. English is the world's most widely used language in newspaper publishing, book publishing, international telecommunications, scientific publishing, international trade, mass entertainment, and diplomacy. English is, by international treaty, the basis for the required controlled natural languages Seaspeak and Airspeak, used as international languages of seafaring and aviation. English used to have parity with French and German in scientific research, but now it dominates that field. It achieved parity with French as a language of diplomacy at the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919. By the time of the foundation of the United Nations at the end of World War II, English had become pre-eminent and is now the main worldwide language of diplomacy and international relations. It is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Many other worldwide international organisations, including the International Olympic Committee, specify English as a working language or official language of the organisation.

Many regional international organisations such as the European Free Trade Association, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) set English as their organisation's sole working language even though most members are not countries with a majority of native English speakers. While the European Union (EU) allows member states to designate any of the national languages as an official language of the Union, in practice English is the main working language of EU organisations.

Although in most countries English is not an official language, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language. In the countries of the EU, English is the most widely spoken foreign language in nineteen of the twenty-five member states where it is not an official language (that is, the countries other than the UK, Ireland and Malta). In a 2012 official Eurobarometer poll, 38 percent of the EU respondents outside the countries where English is an official language said they could speak English well enough to have a conversation in that language. The next most commonly mentioned foreign language, French (which is the most widely known foreign language in the UK and Ireland), could be used in conversation by 12 percent of respondents.

A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of occupations and professions such as medicine and computing. English has become so important in scientific publishing that more than 80 percent of all scientific journal articles indexed by Chemical Abstracts in 1998 were written in English, as were 90 percent of all articles in natural science publications by 1996 and 82 percent of articles in humanities publications by 1995.

Specialised subsets of English arise spontaneously in international communities, for example, among international business people, as an auxiliary language. This has led some scholars to develop the study of English as an auxiliary language. Globish uses a relatively small subset of English vocabulary (about 1500 words with highest use in international business English) in combination with the standard English grammar. Other examples include Simple English.

The increased use of the English language globally has had an effect on other languages, leading to some English words being assimilated into the vocabularies of other languages. This influence of English has led to concerns about language death, and to claims of linguistic imperialism, and has provoked resistance to the spread of English; however the number of speakers continues to increase because many people around the world think that English provides them with opportunities for better employment and improved lives.

Although some scholars mention a possibility of future divergence of English dialects into mutually unintelligible languages, most think a more likely outcome is that English will continue to function as a koineised language in which the standard form unifies speakers from around the world. English is used as the language for wider communication in countries around the world. Thus English has grown in worldwide use much more than any constructed language proposed as an international auxiliary language, including Esperanto.

The phonetics and phonology of the English language differ from one dialect to another, usually without interfering with mutual communication. Phonological variation affects the inventory of phonemes (i.e. speech sounds that distinguish meaning), and phonetic variation is differences in pronunciation of the phonemes. This overview mainly describes the standard pronunciations of the United Kingdom and the United States: Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA) (See Section below on "Dialects, accents and varieties").

The phonetic symbols used below are from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Most English dialects share the same 24consonant phonemes. The consonant inventory shown below is valid for Californian American English, and for RP.

* Conventionally transcribed /r/.

In the table, when obstruents (stops, affricates, and fricatives) appear in pairs, such as /p b/, /t d/, and /s z/, the first is fortis (strong) and the second is lenis (weak). Fortis obstruents, such as /p t s/ are pronounced with more muscular tension and breath force than lenis consonants, such as /b d z/, and are always voiceless. Lenis consonants are partly voiced at the beginning and end of utterances, and fully voiced between vowels. Fortis stops such as /p/ have additional articulatory or acoustic features in most dialects: they are aspirated [p] when they occur alone at the beginning of a stressed syllable, often unaspirated in other cases, and often unreleased [p ] or pre-glottalised [p] at the end of a syllable. In a single-syllable word, a vowel before a fortis stop is shortened: thus nip has a noticeably shorter vowel (phonetically, but not phonemically) than nib [np] (see below).

In RP, the lateral approximant /l/, has two main allophones (pronunciation variants): the clear or plain [l], as in light, and the dark or velarised [], as in full. GA has dark l in most cases.

All sonorants (liquids /l, r/ and nasals /m, n, /) devoice when following a voiceless obstruent, and they are syllabic when following a consonant at the end of a word.

The pronunciation of vowels varies a great deal between dialects and is one of the most detectable aspects of a speaker's accent. The table below lists the vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA), with examples of words in which they occur from lexical sets compiled by linguists. The vowels are represented with symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet; those given for RP are standard in British dictionaries and other publications.

In RP, vowel length is phonemic; long vowels are marked with a triangular colon in the table above, such as the vowel of need [nid] as opposed to bid [bd]. GA does not have long vowels.

In both RP and GA, vowels are phonetically shortened before fortis consonants in the same syllable, like /t t f/, but not before lenis consonants like /d d v/ or in open syllables: thus, the vowels of rich [rt], neat [nit], and safe [sf] are noticeably shorter than the vowels of ridge [rd], need [nid], and save [sev], and the vowel of light [lt] is shorter than that of lie [la]. Because lenis consonants are frequently voiceless at the end of a syllable, vowel length is an important cue as to whether the following consonant is lenis or fortis.

The vowels / / only occur in unstressed syllables and are a result of vowel reduction. Some dialects do not distinguish them, so that roses and comma end in the same vowel, a dialect feature called weak-vowel merger. GA has an unstressed r-coloured schwa //, as in butter [bt], which in RP has the same vowel as the word-final vowel in comma.

An English syllable includes a syllable nucleus consisting of a vowel sound. Syllable onset and coda (start and end) are optional. A syllable can start with up to three consonant sounds, as in sprint /sprnt/, and end with up to four, as in texts /teksts/. This gives an English syllable the following structure, (CCC)V(CCCC) where C represents a consonant and V a vowel; the word strengths /strks/ is thus an example of the most complex syllable possible in English. The consonants that may appear together in onsets or codas are restricted, as is the order in which they may appear. Onsets can only have four types of consonant clusters: a stop and approximant, as in play; a voiceless fricative and approximant, as in fly or sly; s and a voiceless stop, as in stay; and s, a voiceless stop, and an approximant, as in string. Clusters of nasal and stop are only allowed in codas. Clusters of obstruents always agree invoicing, and clusters of sibilants and of plosives with the same point of articulation are prohibited. Furthermore, several consonants have limited distributions: /h/ can only occur in syllable-initial position, and // only in syllable-final position.

Stress plays an important role in English. Certain syllables are stressed, while others are unstressed. Stress is a combination of duration, intensity, vowel quality, and sometimes changes in pitch. Stressed syllables are pronounced longer and louder than unstressed syllables, and vowels in unstressed syllables are frequently reduced while vowels in stressed syllables are not. Some words, primarily short function words but also some modal verbs such as can, have weak and strong forms depending on whether they occur in stressed or non-stressed position within a sentence.

Stress in English is phonemic, and some pairs of words are distinguished by stress. For instance, the word contract is stressed on the first syllable ( KON-trakt) when used as a noun, but on the last syllable ( kn-TRAKT) for most meanings (for example, "reduce in size") when used as a verb. Here stress is connected to vowel reduction: in the noun "contract" the first syllable is stressed and has the unreduced vowel //, but in the verb "contract" the first syllable is unstressed and its vowel is reduced to //. Stress is also used to distinguish between words and phrases, so that a compound word receives a single stress unit, but the corresponding phrase has two: e.g. to brn ut versus a brnout, and a htdog versus a ht dg.

In terms of rhythm, English is generally described as a stress-timed language, meaning that the amount of time between stressed syllables tends to be equal. Stressed syllables are pronounced longer, but unstressed syllables (syllables between stresses) are shortened. Vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened as well, and vowel shortening causes changes in vowel quality: vowel reduction.

Varieties of English vary the most in pronunciation of vowels. The best known national varieties used as standards for education in non English-speaking countries are British (BrE) and American (AmE). Countries such as Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa have their own standard varieties which are less often used as standards for education internationally. Some differences between the various dialects are shown in the table "Varieties of Standard English and their features".

English has undergone many historical sound changes, some of them affecting all varieties, and others affecting only a few. Most standard varieties are affected by the Great Vowel Shift, which changed the pronunciation of long vowels, but a few dialects have slightly different results. In North America, a number of chain shifts such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift and Canadian Shift have produced very different vowel landscapes in some regional accents.

Some dialects have fewer or more consonant phonemes and phones than the standard varieties. Some conservative varieties like Scottish English have a voiceless [] sound in whine that contrasts with the voiced [w] in wine, but most other dialects pronounce both words with voiced [w], a dialect feature called winewhine merger. The unvoiced velar fricative sound /x/ is found in Scottish English, which distinguishes loch /lx/ from lock /lk/. Accents like Cockney with "h-dropping" lack the glottal fricative /h/, and dialects with th-stopping and th-fronting like African American Vernacular and Estuary English do not have the dental fricatives /, /, but replace them with dental or alveolar stops /t, d/ or labiodental fricatives /f, v/. Other changes affecting the phonology of local varieties are processes such as yod-dropping, yod-coalescence, and reduction of consonant clusters.

General American and Received Pronunciation vary in their pronunciation of historical /r/ after a vowel at the end of a syllable (in the syllable coda). GA is a rhotic dialect, meaning that it pronounces /r/ at the end of a syllable, but RP is non-rhotic, meaning that it loses /r/ in that position. English dialects are classified as rhotic or non-rhotic depending on whether they elide /r/ like RP or keep it like GA.

There is complex dialectal variation in words with the open front and open back vowels / /. These four vowels are only distinguished in RP, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In GA, these vowels merge to three / /, and in Canadian English, they merge to two / /. In addition, the words that have each vowel vary by dialect. The table "Dialects and open vowels" shows this variation with lexical sets in which these sounds occur.

As is typical of an Indo-European language, English follows accusative morphosyntactic alignment. Unlike other Indo-European languages though, English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system in favor of analytic constructions. Only the personal pronouns retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class. English distinguishes at least seven major word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, determiners (including articles), prepositions, and conjunctions. Some analyses add pronouns as a class separate from nouns, and subdivide conjunctions into subordinators and coordinators, and add the class of interjections. English also has a rich set of auxiliary verbs, such as have and do, expressing the categories of mood and aspect. Questions are marked by do-support, wh-movement (fronting of question words beginning with wh-) and word order inversion with some verbs.

Some traits typical of Germanic languages persist in English, such as the distinction between irregularly inflected strong stems inflected through ablaut (i.e. changing the vowel of the stem, as in the pairs speak/spoke and foot/feet) and weak stems inflected through affixation (such as love/loved, hand/hands). Vestiges of the case and gender system are found in the pronoun system (he/him, who/whom) and in the inflection of the copula verb to be.

The seven word classes are exemplified in this sample sentence:

English nouns are only inflected for number and possession. New nouns can be formed through derivation or compounding. They are semantically divided into proper nouns (names) and common nouns. Common nouns are in turn divided into concrete and abstract nouns, and grammatically into count nouns and mass nouns.

Most count nouns are inflected for plural number through the use of the plural suffix -s, but a few nouns have irregular plural forms. Mass nouns can only be pluralised through the use of a count noun classifier, e.g. one loaf of bread, two loaves of bread.

Regular plural formation:

Irregular plural formation:

Possession can be expressed either by the possessive enclitic -s (also traditionally called a genitive suffix), or by the preposition of. Historically the -s possessive has been used for animate nouns, whereas the of possessive has been reserved for inanimate nouns. Today this distinction is less clear, and many speakers use -s also with inanimates. Orthographically the possessive -s is separated from the noun root with an apostrophe.

Possessive constructions:

Nouns can form noun phrases (NPs) where they are the syntactic head of the words that depend on them such as determiners, quantifiers, conjunctions or adjectives. Noun phrases can be short, such as the man, composed only of a determiner and a noun. They can also include modifiers such as adjectives (e.g. red, tall, all) and specifiers such as determiners (e.g. the, that). But they can also tie together several nouns into a single long NP, using conjunctions such as and, or prepositions such as with, e.g. the tall man with the long red trousers and his skinny wife with the spectacles (this NP uses conjunctions, prepositions, specifiers, and modifiers). Regardless of length, an NP functions as a syntactic unit. For example, the possessive enclitic can, in cases which do not lead to ambiguity, follow the entire noun phrase, as in The President of India's wife, where the enclitic follows India and not President.

The class of determiners is used to specify the noun they precede in terms of definiteness, where the marks a definite noun and a or an an indefinite one. A definite noun is assumed by the speaker to be already known by the interlocutor, whereas an indefinite noun is not specified as being previously known. Quantifiers, which include one, many, some and all, are used to specify the noun in terms of quantity or number. The noun must agree with the number of the determiner, e.g. one man (sg.) but all men (pl.). Determiners are the first constituents in a noun phrase.

Adjectives modify a noun by providing additional information about their referents. In English, adjectives come before the nouns they modify and after determiners. In Modern English, adjectives are not inflected, and they do not agree in form with the noun they modify, as adjectives in most other Indo-European languages do. For example, in the phrases the slender boy, and many slender girls, the adjective slender does not change form to agree with either the number or gender of the noun.

Some adjectives are inflected for degree of comparison, with the positive degree unmarked, the suffix -er marking the comparative, and -est marking the superlative: a small boy, the boy is smaller than the girl, that boy is the smallest. Some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms, such as good, better, and best. Other adjectives have comparatives formed by periphrastic constructions, with the adverb more marking the comparative, and most marking the superlative: happier or more happy, the happiest or most happy. There is some variation among speakers regarding which adjectives use inflected or periphrastic comparison, and some studies have shown a tendency for the periphrastic forms to become more common at the expense of the inflected form.

English pronouns conserve many traits of case and gender inflection. The personal pronouns retain a difference between subjective and objective case in most persons (I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them) as well as a gender and animateness distinction in the third person singular (distinguishing he/she/it). The subjective case corresponds to the Old English nominative case, and the objective case is used both in the sense of the previous accusative case (in the role of patient, or direct object of a transitive verb), and in the sense of the Old English dative case (in the role of a recipient or indirect object of a transitive verb). Subjective case is used when the pronoun is the subject of a finite clause, and otherwise, the objective case is used. While grammarians such as Henry Sweet and Otto Jespersen noted that the English cases did not correspond to the traditional Latin based system, some contemporary grammars, for example Huddleston & Pullum (2002), retain traditional labels for the cases, calling them nominative and accusative cases respectively.

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English language - Wikipedia

Municipality in Southeast, Brazil

Location in Brazil, east South America

Rio de Janeiro (; Portuguese pronunciation:[i.u d(i) neju];[3] River of January), or simply Rio,[4] is the second-most populous municipality in Brazil and the sixth-most populous in the Americas. The metropolis is anchor to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, the second-most populous metropolitan area in Brazil and sixth-most populous in the Americas. Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's third-most populous state. Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 as a Cultural Landscape.[5]

Founded in 1565 by the Portuguese, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. Later, in 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil, a state of the Portuguese Empire. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court transferred itself from Portugal to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the chosen seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal, who subsequently, in 1815, under the leadership of her son, the Prince Regent, and future King Joo VI of Portugal, raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio stayed the capital of the pluricontinental Lusitanian monarchy until 1822, when the War of Brazilian Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonising country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the independent monarchy, the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of a republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Braslia.

Rio de Janeiro has the second largest municipal GDP in the country,[6] and 30th largest in the world in 2008,[7] estimated at about R$343billion (IBGE, 2008) (nearly US$201billion). It is headquarters to Brazilian oil, mining, and telecommunications companies, including two of the country's major corporationsPetrobras and Valeand Latin America's largest telemedia conglomerate, Grupo Globo. The home of many universities and institutes, it is the second-largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17% of national scientific output according to 2005 data.[8]

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, Carnival, samba, bossa nova, and balneario beaches[9] such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. In addition to the beaches, some of the most famous landmarks include the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf Mountain with its cable car; the Sambdromo (Sambadrome), a permanent grandstand-lined parade avenue which is used during Carnival; and Maracan Stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums.

Rio de Janeiro was the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics, making the city the first South American and Portuguese-speaking city to ever host the events, and the third time the Olympics were held in a Southern Hemisphere city.[10] The Maracan Stadium held the finals of the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the XV Pan American Games.

Despite the high perception of crime, the city has a lower incidence of crime than Northeast Brazil, but it is far more criminalized than the south region of Brazil, which is considered the safest in the country.[11]

Europeans first encountered Guanabara Bay on 1 January 1502 (hence Rio de Janeiro, "January River"), by a Portuguese expedition under explorer Gaspar de Lemos captain of a ship in Pedro lvares Cabral's fleet, or under Gonalo Coelho.[12] Allegedly the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci participated as observer at the invitation of King Manuel I in the same expedition. The region of Rio was inhabited by the Tupi, Puri, Botocudo and Maxakal peoples.[13]

In 1555, one of the islands of Guanabara Bay, now called Villegagnon Island, was occupied by 500 French colonists under the French admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon. Consequently, Villegagnon built Fort Coligny on the island when attempting to establish the France Antarctique colony.

The city of Rio de Janeiro proper was founded by the Portuguese on 1 March 1565 and was named So Sebastio do Rio de Janeiro, in honour of St. Sebastian, the saint who was the namesake and patron of the Portuguese then-monarch Sebastio. Rio de Janeiro was the name of Guanabara Bay. Until early in the 18th century, the city was threatened or invaded by several mostly French pirates and buccaneers, such as Jean-Franois Duclerc and Ren Duguay-Trouin.[14]

In the late 17th century, still during the Sugar Era, the Bandeirantes discovered gold and diamonds in the neighbouring captaincy of Minas Gerais, thus Rio de Janeiro became a much more practical port for exporting wealth (gold, precious stones, besides the sugar) than Salvador, Bahia, much farther northeast. On 27 January 1763,[15] the colonial administration in Portuguese America was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. The city remained primarily a colonial capital until 1808, when the Portuguese royal family and most of the associated Lisbon nobles, fleeing from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal, moved to Rio de Janeiro.

The kingdom's capital was transferred to the city, which, thus, became the only European capital outside of Europe. As there was no physical space or urban structure to accommodate hundreds of noblemen who arrived suddenly, many inhabitants were simply evicted from their homes.[16] In the first decades, several educational establishments were created, such as the Military Academy, the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts and the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the National Library of Brazil - with the largest collection in Latin America[17] - and The Botanical Garden. The first printed newspaper in Brazil, the Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, came into circulation during this period.[18] When Brazil was elevated to Kingdom in 1815, it became the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves until the return of the Portuguese Royal Family to Lisbon in 1821, but remained as capital of the Kingdom of Brazil.[19]

From the colonial period until the first independent decades, Rio de Janeiro was a city of slaves. There was a large influx of African slaves to Rio de Janeiro: in 1819, there were 145,000 slaves in the captaincy. In 1840, the number of slaves reached 220,000 people.[20] The Port of Rio de Janeiro was the largest port of slaves in America.

When Prince Pedro proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822, he decided to keep Rio de Janeiro as the capital of his new empire while the province was enriched with sugar cane agriculture in the Campos region and, especially, with the new coffee cultivation in the Paraba Valley.[19] In order to separate the province from the capital of the Empire, the city was converted, in the year of 1834, in Neutral Municipality, passing the province of Rio de Janeiro to have Niteri as capital.[19]

As a political center of the country, Rio concentrated the political-partisan life of the Empire. It was the main stage of the abolitionist and republican movements in the last half of the 19th century.[19] At that time the number of African slaves was drastically reduced and the city was developed, with modern drains, animal trams, train stations crossing the city, gas and electric lighting, telephone and telegraph wiring, water and river plumbing.[19] Rio continued as the capital of Brazil after 1889, when the monarchy was replaced by a republic.

At the time Brazil's Old Republic was established, the city lacked urban planning and sanitation, which helped spread several diseases, such as yellow fever, dysentery, variola, tuberculosis and even black death. Pereira Passos, who was named mayor in 1902, imposed reforms to modernize the city, demolishing the cortios where most of the poor population lived. These people, mostly descendants of slaves, then moved to live in the city's hills, creating the first favelas.[21] Inspired by the city of Paris, Passos built the Municipal Theatre, the National Museum of Fine Arts and the National Library in the city's center; brought electric power to Rio and created larger avenues to adapt the city to automobiles.[22] Passos also named Dr. Oswaldo Cruz as Director General of Public Health. Cruz's plans to clean the city of diseases included compulsory vaccination of the entire population and forced entry into houses to kill mosquitos and rats. The people of city rebelled against Cruz's policy, in what would be known as the Vaccine Revolt.[23]

In 1910, Rio saw the Revolt of the Lash, where Afro-Brazilian crew members in the Brazilian Navy mutinied against the heavy use of corporal punishment, which was similar to the punishment slaves received. The mutineers took control of the battleship Minas Geraes and threatened to fire on the city. Another military revolt occurred in 1922, the 18 of the Copacabana Fort revolt, a march against the Old Republic's coronelism and caf com leite politics. This revolt marked the beginning of Tenentism, a movement that resulted in the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 that started the Vargas Era.

Until the early years of the 20th century, the city was largely limited to the neighbourhood now known as the historic city centre (see below), on the mouth of Guanabara Bay. The city's centre of gravity began to shift south and west to the so-called Zona Sul (South Zone) in the early part of the 20th century, when the first tunnel was built under the mountains between Botafogo and the neighbourhood that is now known as Copacabana. Expansion of the city to the north and south was facilitated by the consolidation and electrification of Rio's streetcar transit system after 1905.[24] Botafogo's natural beauty, combined with the fame of the Copacabana Palace Hotel, the luxury hotel of the Americas in the 1930s, helped Rio to gain the reputation it still holds today as a beach party town (although this reputation has been somewhat tarnished in recent years by favela violence resulting from the narcotics trade[25]).

Plans for moving the nation's capital city from Rio de Janeiro to the centre of Brazil had been occasionally discussed, and when Juscelino Kubitschek was elected president in 1955, it was partially on the strength of promises to build a new capital.[26] Though many thought that it was just campaign rhetoric, Kubitschek managed to have Braslia and a new Federal District built, at great cost, by 1960. On 21 April of that year the capital of Brazil was officially moved to Braslia. The territory of the former Federal District became its own state, Guanabara, after the bay that borders it to the east, encompassing just the city of Rio de Janeiro. After the 1964 coup d'tat that installed a military dictatorship, the city-state was the only state left in Brazil to oppose the military. Then, in 1975, a presidential decree known as "The Fusion" removed the city's federative status and merged it with the State of Rio de Janeiro, with the city of Rio de Janeiro replacing Niteri as the state's capital, and establishing the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region.[27]

In 1992, Rio hosted the Earth Summit, a United Nations conference to fight environmental degradation. Twenty years later, in 2012, the city hosted another conference on sustainable development, named United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The city hosted the World Youth Day in 2013, the second World Youth Day in South America and first in Brazil. In the sports field, Rio de Janeiro was the host of the 2007 Pan American Games and the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final. On 2 October 2009, the International Olympic Committee announced that Rio de Janeiro would host the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2016 Paralympic Games, beating competitors Chicago, Tokyo, and Madrid. The city became the first South American city to host the event and the second Latin American city (after Mexico City in 1968) to host the Games.

Rio de Janeiro is on the far western part of a strip of Brazil's Atlantic coast (between a strait east to Ilha Grande, on the Costa Verde, and the Cabo Frio), close to the Tropic of Capricorn, where the shoreline is oriented eastwest. Facing largely south, the city was founded on an inlet of this stretch of the coast, Guanabara Bay (Baa de Guanabara), and its entrance is marked by a point of land called Sugar Loaf (Po de Acar)a "calling card" of the city.[28]

The Centre (Centro), the core of Rio, lies on the plains of the western shore of Guanabara Bay. The greater portion of the city, commonly referred to as the North Zone (Zona Norte), extends to the northwest on plains composed of marine and continental sediments and on hills and several rocky mountains. The South Zone (Zona Sul) of the city, reaching the beaches fringing the open sea, is cut off from the Centre and from the North Zone by coastal mountains. These mountains and hills are offshoots of the Serra do Mar to the northwest, the ancient gneiss-granite mountain chain that forms the southern slopes of the Brazilian Highlands. The large West Zone (Zona Oeste), long cut off by the mountainous terrain, had been made more easily accessible to those on the South Zone by new roads and tunnels by the end of the 20th century.[29]

The population of the city of Rio de Janeiro, occupying an area of 1,182.3 square kilometres (456.5sqmi),[30] is about 6,000,000.[31] The population of the greater metropolitan area is estimated at 1113.5million. Residents of the city are known as cariocas. The official song of Rio is "Cidade Maravilhosa", by composer Andr Filho.

Rio has a tropical savanna climate that closely borders a tropical monsoon climate (Am) according to the Kppen climate classification, and is often characterized by long periods of heavy rain between December and March.[32] The city experiences hot, humid summers, and mild, wet winters. In inland areas of the city, temperatures above 40C (104F) are common during the summer, though rarely for long periods, while maximum temperatures above 27C (81F) can occur on a monthly basis.

Along the coast, the breeze, blowing onshore and offshore, moderates the temperature. Because of its geographic situation, the city is often reached by cold fronts advancing from Antarctica, especially during autumn and winter, causing frequent weather changes. In summer there can be strong rains, which have, on some occasions, provoked catastrophic floods and landslides. The mountainous areas register greater rainfall since they constitute a barrier to the humid wind that comes from the Atlantic.[33] It is the Portuguese word for Flemish, and it was given to the nearby beach (Praia do Flamengo, Beach of the Flemish) because it was the place where the Dutch sailor Olivier van Noort tried to invade the city in 1599. At that time, the Dutchmen were called "Flemish" by the Portuguese.[1]

The city reputedly has had rare frosts in the past, but this has never been decisively confirmed. Some areas within Rio de Janeiro state occasionally have falls of snow grains and ice pellets (popularly called granizo, or "hail", although it is in fact melted and refrozen snow falling in the form of hail, rather than just icy snow). These phenomena are definitely not rare or limited to a few regions,[original research?] having already happened in the metropolitan area (including western suburbs of the city itself) several times in the 21st century.[34][35][36]

Drought is very rare, albeit bound to happen occasionally given the city's strongly seasonal tropical climate. The Brazilian drought of 20142015, most severe in the Southeast Region and the worst in decades, affected the entire metropolitan region's water supply (a diversion from the Paraba do Sul River to the Guandu River is a major source for the state's most populous mesoregion). There were plans to divert the Paraba do Sul to the Sistema Cantareira (Cantareira system) during the water crisis of 2014 in order to help the critically drought-stricken Greater So Paulo area. However, availability of sufficient rainfall to supply tap water to both metropolitan areas in the future is merely speculative.[37][38][39]

Roughly in the same suburbs (Nova Iguau and surrounding areas, including parts of Campo Grande and Bangu) that correspond to the location of the March 2012, FebruaryMarch 2013 and January 2015 pseudo-hail (granizo) falls, there was a tornado-like phenomenon in January 2011, for the first time in the region's recorded history, causing structural damage and long-lasting blackouts, but no fatalities.[40][41] The World Meteorological Organization has advised that Brazil, especially its southeastern region, must be prepared for increasingly severe weather occurrences in the near future, since events such as the catastrophic January 2011 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides are not an isolated phenomenon. In early May 2013, winds registering above 90km/h (56mph) caused blackouts in 15 neighborhoods of the city and three surrounding municipalities, and killed one person.[42] Rio saw similarly high winds (about 100km/h (62mph)) in January 2015.[43] The average annual minimum temperature is 21C (70F),[44] the average annual maximum temperature is 27C (81F),[45] and the average annual temperature is 24C (75F).[46] The average yearly precipitation is 1,069mm (42.1in).[47]

Temperature also varies according to elevation, distance from the coast, and type of vegetation or land use. Winter, cold fronts and dawn/morning sea breezes bring mild temperatures; cold fronts, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (in the form of winds from the Amazon Forest), the strongest sea-borne winds (often from an extratropical cyclone) and summer evapotranspiration bring showers or storms. Thus the monsoon-like climate has dry and mild winters and springs, and very wet and warm summers and autumns. As a result, temperatures over 40C (104F), that may happen about year-round but are much more common during the summer, often mean the actual temperature feeling is over 50C (122F), when there is little wind and the relative humidity percentage is high.[48][49][50][51] Rio de Janeiro is second only to Cuiab as the hottest Brazilian state capital outside Northern and Northeastern Brazil; temperatures below 14C (57F) occur yearly, while those lower than 11C (52F) happen less often. The phrase, fazer frio ("making cold", i.e. "the weather is getting cold"), usually refers to temperatures going below 21C (70F), which is possible year-round and is commonplace in mid-to-late autumn, winter and early spring nights.

Between 1961 and 1990, at the INMET (Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology) conventional station in the neighborhood of Sade, the lowest temperature recorded was 10.1C (50.2F) in October 1977,[52] and the highest temperature recorded was 39C (102.2F) in December 1963.[53] The highest accumulated rainfall in 24 hours was 167.4mm (6.6in) in January 1962.[54] However, the absolute minimum temperature ever recorded at the INMET Jacarepagu station, 3.8C (38.8F) in July 1974,[52] while the absolute maximum was 43.2C (110F) 26 December 2012,[55] in the neighborhood of the Santa Cruz station, while the highest accumulated rainfall in 24 hours, of 186.2mm (7.3in) was recorded at the Santa Teresa station in April 1967.[54] The lowest temperature ever registered in the 21st century was 8.1C (46.6F) in Vila Militar, July 2011.[56]

Average annual temperature of the sea is 2324C (7375F), from 22C (72F) in the period JulyOctober to 26C (79F) in February and March.[60] The dominant ocean current is the warm Brazil Current (as most of elsewhere in the Santos Bight between Santa Catarina and Cabo Frio; the subsurface part of the cold subantarctic Malvinas Current only slightly resurfaces to affect the latter, giving the characteristic semi-arid climate in parts of Arraial do Cabo, the only occurrence of such in the whole state). The wettest and driest months tend to be January and August respectively.

The city is commonly divided into the historic center (Centro); the tourist-friendly wealthier South Zone (Zona Sul); the residential less wealthy North Zone (Zona Norte); peripheries in the West Zone (Zona Oeste), among them Santa Cruz, Campo Grande and the wealthy newer Barra da Tijuca district.

(225419.4112S 431037.6608W / 22.905392000S 43.177128000W / -22.905392000; -43.177128000 (Downtown)) Centro or Downtown is the historic core of the city, as well as its financial centre. Sites of interest include the Pao Imperial, built during colonial times to serve as a residence for the Portuguese governors of Brazil; many historic churches, such as the Candelria Church (the former cathedral), So Jose, Santa Lucia, Nossa Senhora do Carmo, Santa Rita, So Francisco de Paula, and the monasteries of Santo Antnio and So Bento. The Centro also houses the modern concrete Rio de Janeiro Cathedral. Around the Cinelndia square, there are several landmarks of the Belle poque of Rio, such as the Municipal Theatre and the National Library building. Among its several museums, the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) and the Museu Histrico Nacional (National Historical Museum) are the most important. Other important historical attractions in central Rio include its Passeio Pblico, an 18th-century public garden. Major streets include Avenida Rio Branco and Avenida Vargas, both constructed, in 1906 and 1942 respectively, by destroying large swaths of the colonial city. A number of colonial streets, such as Rua do Ouvidor and Uruguaiana, have long been pedestrian spaces, and the popular Saara shopping district has been pedestrianized more recently. Also located in the center is the traditional neighbourhood called Lapa, an important bohemian area frequented by both townspeople and tourists.

(225827S 431158W / 22.974199S 43.199444W / -22.974199; -43.199444 (South Zone))

The South Zone of Rio de Janeiro (Zona Sul) is composed of several districts, among which are So Conrado, Leblon, Ipanema, Arpoador, Copacabana, and Leme, which compose Rio's famous Atlantic beach coastline. Other districts in the South Zone are Glria, Catete, Flamengo, Botafogo, and Urca, which border Guanabara Bay, and Santa Teresa, Cosme Velho, Laranjeiras, Humait, Lagoa, Jardim Botnico, and Gvea. It is the wealthiest part of the city and the best known overseas; the neighborhoods of Leblon and Ipanema, in particular, have the most expensive real estate in all of South America.

The neighbourhood of Copacabana beach hosts one of the world's most spectacular New Year's Eve parties ("Reveillon"), as more than two million revelers crowd onto the sands to watch the fireworks display. From 2001, the fireworks have been launched from boats, to improve the safety of the event.[61] To the north of Leme, and at the entrance to Guanabara Bay, is the district of Urca and the Sugarloaf Mountain ('Po de Acar'), whose name describes the famous mountain rising out of the sea. The summit can be reached via a two-stage cable car trip from Praia Vermelha, with the intermediate stop on Morro da Urca. It offers views of the city second only to Corcovado mountain.

Hang gliding is a popular activity on the Pedra Bonita (literally, "Beautiful Rock"). After a short flight, gliders land on the Praia do Pepino (Pepino, or "cucumber", Beach) in So Conrado.

Since 1961, the Tijuca National Park (Parque Nacional da Tijuca), the largest city-surrounded urban forest and the second largest urban forest in the world, has been a National Park. The largest urban forest in the world is the Floresta da Pedra Branca (White Rock Forest), which is located in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro.[62] The Pontifical Catholic University of Rio (Pontifcia Universidade Catlica do Rio de Janeiro or PUC-Rio), Brazil's top private university, is located at the edge of the forest, in the Gvea district. The 1984 film Blame It on Rio was filmed nearby, with the rental house used by the story's characters sitting at the edge of the forest on a mountain overlooking the famous beaches.

In 2012, CNN elected Ipanema the best city beach in the world.[63]

The North Zone (Zona Norte) begins at Grande Tijuca (the middle class residential and commercial bairro of Tijuca), just west of the city center, and sprawls for miles inland until Baixada Fluminense and the city's Northwest.

This region is home to the Maracan stadium (located in Grande Tijuca), once the world's highest capacity football venue, able to hold nearly 199,000 people, as it did for the World Cup final of 1950. More recently its capacity has been reduced to conform with modern safety regulations and the stadium has introduced seating for all fans. Currently undergoing reconstruction, it has now the capacity for 90,000; it will eventually hold around 80,000 people. Maracan was the site for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and football competition of the 2007 Pan American Games; hosted the final match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the football matches of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Besides Maracan, the North Zone of Rio also has other tourist and historical attractions, such "Nossa Senhora da Penha de Frana Church", the Christ the Redeemer (statue) with its stairway built into the rock bed, 'Manguinhos', the home of Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, a centenarian biomedical research institution with a main building fashioned like a Moorish palace, and the beautiful Quinta da Boa Vista, the park where the historic Imperial Palace is located. Nowadays, the palace hosts the National Museum, specialising in Natural History, Archaeology, and Ethnology.

The International Airport of Rio de Janeiro (Galeo Antnio Carlos Jobim International Airport, named after the famous Brazilian musician Antnio Carlos Jobim), the main campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro at the Fundo Island, and the State University of Rio de Janeiro, in Maracan, are also located in the Northern part of Rio.

This region is also home to most of the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro such as Mangueira, Salgueiro, Imprio Serrano, Unidos da Tijuca, among others. Some of the main neighbourhoods of Rio's North Zone are Alto da Boa Vista which shares the Tijuca Rainforest with the South and Southwest Zones; Tijuca, Vila Isabel, Mier, So Cristovo, Madureira, Penha, Manguinhos, Fundo, Olaria among others.

Many of Rio de Janeiro's roughly 1000 slums, or favelas, are located in the North Zone.[64] The favelas resemble the slums of Paris, New York or other major cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States and Europe, or similar neighborhoods in present underdeveloped countries.

West Zone (Zona Oeste) of Rio de Janeiro is a complicated place that makes up more than 50% of the city area, including Barra da Tijuca and Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhoods. The West Side of Rio has many historic sites because of the old "Royal Road of Santa Cruz" that crossed the territory in the regions of Realengo, Bangu, and Campo Grande, finishing at the Royal Palace of Santa Cruz in the Santa Cruz region.

The highest peak of the city of Rio de Janeiro is the Pedra Branca Peak (Pico da Pedra Branca) inside the Pedra Branca State Park. It has an altitude of 1024m. The Pedra Branca State Park (Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca)[65] is the biggest urban state park in the world comprising 17 neighborhoods in the west side, being a "giant lung" in the city with trails,[66] waterfalls and historic constructions like an old aqueduct in the Colnia Juliano Moreira[67] in the neighborhood of Taquara and a dam in Camorim. The park has three principal entrances: the main one is in Taquara called Pau da Fome Core, another entrance is the Piraquara Core in Realengo and the last one is the Camorim Core, considered the cultural heritage of the city.

Santa Cruz and Campo Grande Region have exhibited economic growth, mainly in the Campo Grande neighborhood. Industrial enterprises are being built in lower and lower middle class residential Santa Cruz, one of the largest and most populous of Rio de Janeiro's neighbourhoods, most notably Companhia Siderrgica do Atlntico (CSA), a new steel mill with its own private docks on Sepetiba Bay, which is planned to be South America's largest steel works.[68]

A tunnel called Tnel da Grota Funda, opened in 2012, creating a public transit facility between Barra da Tijuca and Santa Cruz, lessening travel time to the region from other areas of Rio de Janeiro.[69]

On 6 February 1889 the Bangu Textile Factory was founded, with the name of Industrial Progress Company of Brazil (Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil). The factory was officially opened on 8 March 1893, in a very beautiful architectural complex with styles like Italianate, Neo-Gothic and a tower in Mansard Roof style. After the opening in 1893, workers from Great Britain arrived in Bangu to work in the textile factory. The old farms became worker villages with red bricks houses, and a neo-gothic church was created, which still exists as the Saint Sebastian and Saint Cecilia Parish Church. Street cinemas and cultural buildings also appeared.

In May 1894, Thomas Donohoe, a British worker from Busby, Scotland, arrived in Bangu.[70] He was horrified to discover that there was no knowledge of football among Brazilians. So he wrote to his wife, Elizabeth, asking her to bring a football when she joined him. And shortly after her arrival, in September 1894, the first football match in Brazil took place in the field beside the textile factory. It was a five-a-side match between British workers, and took place six months before the first game organized by Charles Miller in So Paulo. However, the Bangu Football Club was not formally created until 1904.[71]

The Bangu Textile Factory closed in 2004. In 2015, in the Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, a short film about Bangu and Thomas Donohoe called "Pass to Mr. Danau" (Bola Para Seu Danau, in Portuguese) won the "Curta Rio Award" together with 9 other short films about the city.

This is an elite area of the West Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro. It includes Barra da Tijuca, Recreio dos Bandeirantes, Vargem Grande, Vargem Pequena, Grumari, Itanhang, Camorim and Jo.

Westwards from the older zones of Rio, Barra da Tijuca is a flat complex of barrier islands of formerly undeveloped coastal land, which constantly experiences new constructions and developments. It remains an area of accelerated growth, attracting some of the richer sectors of the population as well as luxury companies. High rise flats and sprawling shopping centers give the area a far more modern feel than the crowded city centre.

The urban planning of the area, completed in the late 1960s, mixes zones of single-family houses with residential skyscrapers. The beaches of Barra da Tijuca are also popular with the residents from other parts of the city.

One of the most famous hills in the city is the 842-metre-high (2,762-foot) Pedra da Gvea (Crow's nest Rock) bordering the South Zone. On the top of its summit is a huge rock formation (some, such as Erich von Dniken in his 1973 book, In Search of Ancient Gods, claim it to be a sculpture) resembling a sphinx-like, bearded head that is visible for many kilometres around.

According to the 2010 IBGE Census, there were 5,940,224 people residing in the city of Rio de Janeiro.[72] The census revealed the following numbers: 3,239,888 White people (51.2%), 2,318,675 Pardo (multiracial) people (36.5%), 708,148 Black people (11.5%), 45,913 Asian people (0.7%), 5,981 Amerindian people (0.1%).[73] The population of Rio de Janeiro was 53.2% female and 46.8% male.[73]

In 2010, the city of Rio de Janeiro was the 2nd most populous city in Brazil, after So Paulo.[74]

Different ethnic groups contributed to the formation of the population of Rio de Janeiro. Before European colonization, there were at least seven different indigenous peoples speaking 20 languages in the region. A part of them joined the Portuguese and the other the French. Those who joined the French were then exterminated by the Portuguese, while the other part was assimilated.[75]

Rio de Janeiro is home to the largest Portuguese population outside of Lisbon in Portugal.[77] After independence from Portugal, Rio de Janeiro became a destination for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Portugal, mainly in the early 20th century. The immigrants were mostly poor peasants who subsequently found prosperity in Rio as city workers and small traders.[78] The Portuguese cultural influence is still seen in many parts of the city (and many other parts of the state of Rio de Janeiro), including architecture and language. Most Brazilians with some cultural contact with Rio know how to easily differentiate between the local dialect, fluminense, and other Brazilian dialects.

People of Portuguese ancestry predominate in most of the state. The Brazilian census of 1920 showed that 39.74% of the Portuguese who lived in Brazil lived in Rio de Janeiro. Including all of the Rio de Janeiro, the proportion raised to 46.30% of the Portuguese who lived in Brazil. The numerical presence of the Portuguese was extremely high, accounting for 72% of the foreigners who lived in the capital. Portuguese born people accounted for 20.36% of the population of Rio, and those with a Portuguese father or a Portuguese mother accounted for 30.84%. In other words, native born Portuguese and their children accounted for 51.20% of the inhabitants of Rio, or a total of 267,664 people in 1890.[79]

The black community was formed by residents whose ancestors had been brought as slaves, mostly from Angola and Mozambique, as well by people of Angolan, Mozambican and West African descent who moved to Rio from other parts of Brazil. The samba (from Bahia with Angolan influence) and the famous local version of the carnival (from Europe) first appeared under the influence of the black community in the city.

Today, nearly half of the city's population is by phenotype perceptibly black or part black,.[81] A large majority has some recent Subsaharan ancestor. White in Brazil is defined more by having a European-looking phenotype rather than ancestry, and two full siblings can be of different "racial" categories[82] in a skin color and phenotype continuum from plido (branco) or fair-skinned, through branco moreno or swarthy Caucasian, mestio claro or lighter skinned multiracial, pardo (mixed race) to negro or black. Pardo, for example, in popular usage includes those who are caboclos (mestizos), mulatos (mulattoes), cafuzos (zambos), juaras (archaic term for tri-racials) and westernized Amerindians (which are called caboclos as well), being more of a skin color rather than a racial group in particular.

As a result of the influx of immigrants to Brazil from the late 19th to the early 20th century, also found in Rio de Janeiro and its metropolitan area are communities of Levantine Arabs who are mostly Christian or Irreligious, Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Japanese,[83] Jews, and people from other parts of Brazil. The main waves of internal migration came from people of African, mixed or older Portuguese (as descendants of early settlers) descent from Minas Gerais and people of Eastern European, Swiss, Italian, German, Portuguese and older Portuguese-Brazilian heritage from Esprito Santo in the early and mid-20th century, together with people with origins in Northeastern Brazil, in the mid-to-late and late 20th century, as well some in the early 21st century (the latter more directed to peripheries than the city's core).

According to an autosomal DNA study from 2009, conducted on a school in the poor suburb of Rio de Janeiro, the "pardos" there were found to be on average about 80% European, and the "whites" (who thought of themselves as "very mixed") were found to carry very little Amerindian and/or African admixtures. The results of the tests of genomic ancestry are quite different from the self made estimates of European ancestry. In general, the test results showed that European ancestry is far more important than the students thought it would be. The "pardos" for example thought of themselves as European, African and Amerindian before the tests, and yet their ancestry on average reached 80% European.[85][86] Other studies showed similar results[84][87]

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after So Paulo) and has a rapidly expanding population and rapidly growing area due to rapid urbanization.

The Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, according to 2009 research from Fundao Getlio Vargas (known as Novo Mapa das Religies), ranks first in Brazil in the percentage of Catholics (51.09%) living there. Rio de Janeiro city also ranks fifth among Brazilian state capital cities in the percentage of its population that is irreligious (13.33%), barely changing since 2000 (the first-ranked, Boa Vista, has 21.16% irreligious).[90][91] It is also the Brazilian state capital with the greatest percentage of Spiritists (now about 45%), and with substantial numbers in Afro-Brazilian religions and Eastern religions.

Catholic Church in Rio de Janeiro

There are significant disparities between the rich and the poor in Rio de Janeiro, and different socioeconomic groups are largely segregated into different neighborhoods.[93] Although the city clearly ranks among the world's major metropolises, large numbers live in slums known as favelas, where 95% of the population are poor, compared to 40% in the general population.[94] There have been a number of government initiatives to counter this problem, from the removal of the population from favelas to housing projects such as Cidade de Deus to the more recent approach of improving conditions in the favelas and bringing them up to par with the rest of the city, as was the focus of the "Favela Bairro" program and deployment of Pacifying Police Units.

Rio has more people living in slums than any other city in Brazil, according to the 2010 Census.[95] More than 1,500,000 people live in its 763 favelas, 22% of Rio's total population. So Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, has more favelas (1,020) in sheer numbers, but proportionally has fewer people living in favelas than Rio.

Yet in 2000, several Rio neighborhoods boasted Human Development Index scores higher than the most developed countries in the world.[96]

The HDI of Brazil overall was 0.755 and Rio State was 0.778. The city scores 0.800.[97][98]

Rio de Janeiro has the second largest GDP of any city in Brazil, surpassed only by So Paulo. According to the IBGE, it was approximately US$201billion in 2008, equivalent to 5.1% of the national total. Taking into consideration the network of influence exerted by the urban metropolis (which covers 11.3% of the population), this share in GDP rises to 14.4%, according to a study released in October 2008 by the IBGE.[99]

Greater Rio de Janeiro, as perceived by the IBGE, has a GDP of US$187billion, constituting the second largest hub of national wealth. Per capita GDP is US$11,786.[100] It concentrates 68% of the state's economic strength and 7.9% of all goods and services produced in the country.[101]

The services sector comprises the largest portion of GDP (65.52%), followed by commerce (23.38%), industrial activities (11.06%) and agriculture (0.04%).[102][103]

Benefiting from the federal capital position it had for a long period (17631960), the city became a dynamic administrative, financial, commercial and cultural center. Rio de Janeiro became an attractive place for companies to locate when it was the capital of Brazil, as important sectors of society and of the government were present in the city, even when their factories were located in other cities or states. The city was chosen as headquarters for state-owned companies such as Petrobras, Eletrobras, Caixa Econmica Federal, National Economic and Social Development Bank and Vale (which was privatized in the 1990s). The Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange (BVRJ), which currently trades only government securities, was the first stock exchange founded in Brazil in 1845. Despite the transfer of the capital to Braslia in 1960, many of these headquarters remained within the Rio metropolitan area.

The off-shore oil exploration in the Campos Basin began in 1968 and became the main site for oil production of Brazil. This caused many oil and gas companies to be based in Rio de Janeiro, such as the Brazilian branches of Shell, EBX and Esso. For many years Rio was the second largest industrial hub of Brazil,[104] with oil refineries, shipbuilding industries, steel, metallurgy, petrochemicals, cement, pharmaceutical, textile, processed foods and furniture industries.

Major international pharmaceutical companies have their Brazilian headquarters in Rio such as: Merck, Roche, Arrow, Darrow, Baxter, Mayne, and Mappel. A newer electronics and computer sector has been added to the more-established industries. Construction, also an important activity, provides a significant source of employment for large numbers of unskilled workers and is buoyed by the number of seasonal residents who build second homes in the Greater Rio de Janeiro area.

Rio is an important financial centre, second only to So Paulo in volume of business. Its securities market, although declining in significance relative to So Paulo, is still of major importance. Recent decades have seen a sharp transformation in its economic profile, which is becoming more and more one of a major national hub of services and businesses.[105] The city is the headquarters of large telecom companies, such as Intelig, Oi and Embratel. Major Brazilian entertainment and media organizations are based in Rio de Janeiro like Organizaes Globo and also some of Brazil's major newspapers: Jornal do Brasil, O Dia, and Business Rio.

Tourism and entertainment are other key aspects of the city's economic life. The city is the nation's top tourist attraction for both Brazilians and foreigners.[106]

To attract industry, the state government has designated certain areas on the outskirts of the city as industrial districts where infrastructure is provided and land sales are made under special conditions. Oil and natural gas from fields off the northern coast of Rio de Janeiro state are a major asset used for developing manufacturing activities in Rio's metropolitan area, enabling it to compete with other major cities for new investment in industry.[107]

Owing to the proximity of Rio's port facilities, many of Brazil's export-import companies are headquartered in the city. In Greater Rio, which has one of the highest per capita incomes in Brazil, retail trade is substantial. Many of the most important retail stores are located in the Centre, but others are scattered throughout the commercial areas of the other districts, where shopping centres, supermarkets, and other retail businesses handle a large volume of consumer trade.[108]

Rio de Janeiro is (as of 2014[update]) the second largest exporting municipality in Brazil. Annually, Rio exported a total of $7.49B (USD) worth of goods.[109] The top three goods exported by the municipality were crude petroleum (40%), semi finished iron product (16%), and semi finished steel products (11%).[110] Material categories of mineral products (42%) and metals (29%) make up 71% of all exports from Rio.[111]

Compared to other cities, Rio de Janeiro's economy is the 2nd largest in Brazil, behind So Paulo, and the 30th largest in the world with a GDP of R$ 201,9billion in 2010. The per capita income for the city was R$22,903 in 2007 (around US$14,630).[112] Largely because of the strength of Brazil's currency at the time, Mercer's city rankings of cost of living for expatriate employees, reported that Rio de Janeiro ranked 12th among the most expensive cities in the world in 2011, up from the 29th position in 2010, just behind So Paulo (ranked 10th), and ahead of London, Paris, Milan, and New York City.[113][114] Rio also had the most expensive hotel rates in Brazil, and the daily rate of its five star hotels were the second most expensive in the world after only New York City.[115]

The Portuguese language is the official and national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. English and Spanish are also part of the official curriculum. There are also international schools, such as the American School of Rio de Janeiro, Our Lady of Mercy School, the Corcovado German School, the Lyce Franais and the British School of Rio de Janeiro.

The city has several universities and research institutes. The Ministry of Education has certified approximately 99 upper-learning institutions in Rio.[116] The most prestigious university is the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the fifth best in Latin America, and the second best in Brazil, second only to the University of So Paulo, the best in Latin America, according to the QS World University Rankings.[117][118]

Some notable higher education institutions are:

There are more than 137 upper-learning institutions in whole Rio de Janeiro state.[119]

Primary schools are largely under municipal administration, while the state plays a more significant role in the extensive network of secondary schools. There are also a small number of schools under federal administration, as is the case of Pedro II School, Colgio de Aplicao da UFRJ and the Centro Federal de Educao Tecnolgica of Rio de Janeiro (CEFET-RJ). In addition, Rio has an ample offering of private schools that provide education at all levels. Rio is home to many colleges and universities. The literacy rate for cariocas aged 10 and older is nearly 95 percent, well above the national average.[120]

The Rio de Janeiro State University (public), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (public), Brazilian Institute of Capital Markets (private) and Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (private) are among the country's top institutions of higher education. Other institutes of higher learning include the Colgio Regina Coeli in Usina, notable for having its own 3ft (914mm) narrow gauge[121] funicular railway on its grounds.[122]

In Rio, there were 1,033 primary schools with 25,594 teachers and 667,788 students in 1995. There are 370 secondary schools with 9,699 teachers and 227,892 students. There are 53 University-preparatory schools with 14,864 teachers and 154,447 students. The city has six major universities and 47 private schools of higher learning.[123]

Rio de Janeiro is a main cultural hub in Brazil. Its architecture embraces churches and buildings dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, blending with the world-renowned designs of the 20th century. Rio was home to the Portuguese Imperial family and capital of the country for many years, and was influenced by Portuguese, English, and French architecture.[124]

Rio de Janeiro has inherited a strong cultural role from the past. In the late 19th century, there were sessions held of the first Brazilian film and since then, several production cycles have spread out, eventually placing Rio at the forefront of experimental and national cinema. The Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival[125] has been held annually since 1999.[126] Rio currently brings together the main production centers of Brazilian television.[127] Major international films set in Rio de Janeiro include Blame it on Rio; the James Bond film Moonraker; the Oscar award-winning, critically acclaimed Central Station by Walter Salles, who is also one of Brazil's best-known directors; and the Oscar award-winning historical drama, Black Orpheus, which depicted the early days of Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro. Internationally famous, Brazilian-made movies illustrating a darker side of Rio de Janeiro include Elite Squad and City of God.

Rio has many important cultural landmarks, such as the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library), one of the largest libraries in the world with collections totalling more than 9 million items; the Theatro Municipal; the National Museum of Fine Arts; the Carmen Miranda Museum; the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden; the Parque Lage; the Quinta da Boa Vista; the Imperial Square; the Brazilian Academy of Letters; the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro; and the Natural History Museum.

Rio de Janeiro is Brazil's primary tourist attraction and resort. It receives the most visitors per year of any city in South America with 2.82million international tourists a year.[128] The city sports world-class hotels, approximately 80kilometres of beaches and the famous Corcovado and Sugarloaf mountains. While the city had in past had a thriving tourism sector, the industry entered a decline in the last quarter of the 20th century. Annual international airport arrivals dropped from 621,000 to 378,000 and average hotel occupancy dropped to 50% between 1985 and 1993.[129]

The fact that Braslia replaced Rio de Janeiro as the Brazilian capital in 1960 and that So Paulo replaced Rio as the country's commercial, financial and main cultural center during the mid-20th century, has also been cited as a leading cause of the decline. Rio de Janeiro's government has since undertaken to modernise the city's economy, reduce its chronic social inequalities, and improve its commercial standing as part of an initiative for the regeneration of the tourism industry.[130]

The city is an important global LGBT destination, 1 million LGBT tourists visiting each year.[131] The Rua Farme de Amoedo is located in Ipanema, a famous neighborhood in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The street and the nearby beach, famous tourist spots, are remarkable for their popularity in the LGBT community. Rio de Janeiro is the most awarded destination by World Travel Awards in the South American category of "best destination".[132]

After Brazilian independence from Portugal in 1822, Rio de Janeiro quickly developed a European-style bourgeois cultural life, including numerous newspapers, in which most 19th-century novels were initially published in serial. Joaquim Manuel de Macedo's A Moreninha (1844) was perhaps the first successful novel in Brazil and inaugurates a recurrent 19th-century theme: a romantic relationship between idealistic young people in spite of cruelties of social fortune.

The first notable work of realism focusing on the urban lower-middle class is Manuel Antnio de Almeida's Memrias de um sargento de milcias (1854), which presents a series of picaresque but touching scenes, and evokes the transformation of a town into a city with suggestive nostalgia. Romantic and realist modes both flourished through the late 19th century and often overlapped within works.[133] The most famous author of Rio de Janeiro, however, was Machado de Assis, who is also widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature[134] and considered the founder of Realism in Brazil, with the publication of The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (1881).[135] He commented on and criticized the political and social events of the city and country such as the abolition of slavery in 1888 and the transition from Empire to Republic with his numerous chronicles published in newspapers of the time.[136] Many of his short stories and novels, like Quincas Borba (1891) and Dom Casmurro (1899), are placed in Rio.

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Westworld is an American science fiction western thriller television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO. It is based on the 1973 film of the same name, which was written and directed by American novelist Michael Crichton, and to a lesser extent on the 1976 sequel Futureworld. It is the second TV series based on the two films, the first being the short-lived 1980 series Beyond Westworld. Nolan and Joy serve as executive producers along with J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub, and Bryan Burk, with Nolan directing the pilot. The first season premiered on October 2, 2016, concluded on December 4, 2016, and consisted of ten episodes.[3] In November 2016, HBO renewed the show for a ten-episode second season,[4] which is set to premiere on April 22, 2018.[5]

The story takes place in the fictional Westworld, a technologically advanced Wild West-themed amusement park populated by android hosts. Westworld caters to high-paying guests, who may indulge in whatever they wish within the park, without fear of retaliation from the hosts.

The series' debut on HBO garnered the network's highest viewership ratings for a premiere since the first episode of True Detective in 2014 and Westworld ranks as the most-watched first season of an HBO original series ever.[6] Westworld has received largely positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for the visuals, story, and performances.

In the future, the Westworld theme park offers its visitors the opportunity to experience the Wild West in a large area of land that includes the frontier town of Sweetwater. The town and land are occupied by "hosts", androids indistinguishable from humans, with advanced programming following a pre-defined set of intertwining narratives, with the ability to deviate from these narratives as visitors interact with them. The hosts repeat these narratives anew each day, having their memories wiped of the previous day, until they are repurposed for other narratives or put away in storage for reuse later. For the visitors' safety, hosts are unable to harm any other living life forms, allowing visitors nearly unlimited freedom to engage in whatever activities they want without retribution, including sex and simulated murder with the hosts. A staff oversees the park, develops new narratives, and performs repairs on hosts as necessary.

The series begins as a routine update in the hosts' programming causes unusual deviations in their behavior that concerns the park's staff, with some of the hosts learning the truth about themselves and their world.

Warner Bros. had been considering a remake of Westworld since the early 1990s and after the departure of studio executive Jessica Goodman in 2011, the project was again under consideration.[45] Jerry Weintraub had been pushing for a remake for years and, after his success with HBO's Behind the Candelabra, he convinced the network to greenlight a pilot. He took the project to Jonathan Nolan and co-writer Lisa Joy, who saw the potential in the concept to make something far more ambitious,[46] and on August 31, 2013, it was announced that premium cable channel HBO had ordered a pilot for a potential television series version of the story, with Nolan, Joy, J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub and Bryan Burk as executive producers.[47]

HBO later announced that Westworld had been taken to series and that it would premiere in 2015.[48] In August 2015, HBO released the first teaser, which revealed it would premiere in 2016.[49] It is the second series based on Crichton's original story after the 1980s Beyond Westworld, which aired only three episodes on CBS before being cancelled.[50]

Abrams suggested that the show be told with the perspective of the "hosts" in mind.[51] Nolan took inspiration from video games like BioShock Infinite, Red Dead Redemption and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to deal with the narrative's moral component on a spectrum.[52] During the research, the films of Sergio Leone provided reference points for the characters and visuals, novels by Philip K. Dick informed them about dilemmas concerning artificial intelligence, and for world-building and interlocking narrative, they consulted the Grand Theft Auto games.[53]

Nolan explained the show would explore why "violence is in most of the stories we like to watch, but it isn't part of what we like to do" through the characters known as guests, who give payment to satisfy those urges.[54] The autonomous existence of non-player characters in video games influenced the approach to the individual storylines in Westworld that are reset in a continuous loop.[55] A recitation from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet"These violent delights have violent ends"[56]is made part of the show as a virus trigger within the hosts that alters how they perceive their existence.[57] The series explores ideas about the bicameral mind by Julian Jaynes, about the existence of two separate mindsone that gives instructions and another that performs them, and how consciousness comes from breaking down the wall between them by exposing the individual to new kinds of stimuli.[58]

Costume designer Ane Crabtree approached her work by focusing upon the actual historical attire of the Wild West from the 1850s to 1890s for inspiration, rather than Western films. Fabrics were custom-woven, dyed and printed for any actor with a speaking role to capture the intricacies of the costumes (most of which were manufactured from scratch in Upstate New York and Los Angeles). Hat designs were described as the most challenging part of the process.[59]

The 1973 film also included a Roman World and Medieval World, but Nolan has counted these out.[60] Ed Brubaker served on the writing staff as supervising producer,[61] co-writing the fourth episode with Nolan.[62]

The story has been planned to last up to five seasons by the writers and producers.[63]

The ten episodes of the first season were reportedly produced on a budget of approximately $100 million, with per-episode budgets somewhere between $8 million to $10 million, and the pilot episode alone costing $25 million to produce. HBO and Warner Bros. Television shared the cost of producing the series; HBO reportedly also paid an undisclosed licensing fee to Warner Bros. Television for broadcast rights.[64]

Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood were the first cast members formally announced, taking on the roles of Dr. Robert Ford and Dolores Abernathy, respectively.[7] Jeffrey Wright, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bols Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, and Simon Quarterman were all announced as cast members in August 2014.[12] James Marsden and Eddie Rouse were also added to the cast.[10] Ed Harris was cast in a key villain role, known only as the Man in Black.[16] Other roles were filled by Demetrius Grosse, Kyle Bornheimer, Currie Graham, Lena Georgas, Steven Ogg, Timothy Lee DePriest, Ptolemy Slocum, Thandie Newton, and Miranda Otto.[8][11][20][65]

In July 2015, it was announced that Otto had departed the show due to her commitments to the fifth season of Homeland and she was replaced by Sidse Babett Knudsen. Additionally, three others were cast; Eion Bailey, Jimmi Simpson and Clifton Collins Jr.[14] Bailey was later replaced by Ben Barnes.[17] Talulah Riley was revealed to have a role as one of the hosts after her ex-husband Elon Musk had stated so on Twitter;[66] Riley will be promoted to series regular for the second season.[19]

After the last episode of the first season was broadcast, Nolan and Joy revealed that they had operated on a strict need-to-know basis with most of the actors, in order to "keep the story as fresh and present for them as possible."[67] For example, in Wood's case, they gave her strange acting directions without explaining why, and it took a while for Wood to infer she was actually playing five distinct characters within the same host: four different behavioral modes for Dolores, plus Wyatt.[68] However, Hopkins was made aware of Ford's general story arc up front (at the time he was pitched the role) to ensure he could fully convey the complexity of the character in his performance.[67][69] Even with that foreknowledge, Hopkins was initially given heavily redacted scripts, and he had to insist on access to entire unredacted scripts.[69]

Early on it was decided that the series would be shot on 35 mm film with assistance from HD taps, despite increasing difficulties in acquiring film stocks from the remaining manufacturers.[70] For a softer look, the filmmakers used Arri Zeiss master prime lenses with their coatings removed.[71] The series was primarily shot on Kodak motion picture film, which was processed by FotoKem in Burbank and scanned by Encore Hollywood to create digital intermediates of all takes suitable for use as dailies. The final cut was delivered to HBO in 2K JPEG digital format for broadcast and to Warner Bros. Television as a cut negative for archival purposes.[72]

Since much of the series is seen from the hosts' point of view,[73] Steadicams were used to film the whole first season, except for a couple of scenes in the last episode, where a handheld camera was used as a metaphor for hosts who broke free from their programming and acted of their own free will.[74] Filming for the show's pilot episode took place during a 22-day period[75] in August 2014 in and around Los Angeles[76] as well as Moab, Utah.[77]

Filming locations in California included various soundstages, backlots at both Universal Studios and Warner Bros., the Paramount Ranch in Agoura,[78] the Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita,[75][79] the Skirball Cultural Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles,[72] and the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.[80] The Melody Ranch set used for the town of Sweetwater had been used previously for many western films, such as Django Unchained and The Magnificent Seven, but was significantly upgraded for Westworld by production designer Zack Grobler to portray an idealized version of the American frontier.[79] Green screens were placed around the California sets to block modern objects like parking lots, so that the California shots could be later merged digitally with exterior shots from Utah.[79] For scenes showing the arrival of guests, the filmmakers were able to arrange with the Fillmore and Western Railway for the use of a small train originally built for the 2013 film The Lone Ranger. F&W also provided a few hundred feet of track on which to place the train; then a pusher vehicle was used to propel the train into the Sweetwater set. The scenes in the underground laboratory levels of Westworld's operations center were filmed on a soundstage at Melody Ranch. The lab set used glass walls extensively, which meant the crew had to be vigilant to avoid walking through glass on the rather dark set, and they had to keep identifying and suppressing unwanted reflections. Hawthorne Plaza was used for filming the "cold storage" level where decommissioned hosts are stored.[72]

For the show's large-scale exterior look, the producers drew inspiration from the work of John Ford, who shot four of his Western films in Castle Valley, east of Moab.[78] In early 2014, Nolan visited southern Utah with key crew members and a location scout to explore the possibility of filming there, and promptly fell in love with the place.[77] Location shooting for the pilot episode later occurred over five days in southern Utah,[77] including Castle Valley.[78] Most Utah locations, like Dead Horse Point State Park, were "walk-in" areas where both cast and crew were required to hike in and out with all their gear.[77] Horseback riding scenes were filmed at a private ranch, where the filmmakers were not subject to as many restrictions as when working on public land.[80] To seamlessly blend California sets with Utah scenery, set walls were shipped to Utah so that they could be used to film reverse angles of scenes originally filmed in California.[80] For example, conversations on the exterior balcony of Westworld's operations center were shot on a balcony at the Skirball Center facing towards the center, then reverse angles over the shoulders of the cast members were shot at Dead Horse Point, to make it seem as if the operations center was located on top of the state park's steep cliffs.[77][80][72] The train interior scenes were created by mounting the entire train car set on the back of a flatbed truck and driving the truck back and forth along Utah State Route 128.[77]

The 3D printing of hosts was shot utilizing almost entirely practical effects, of which some were polished by the visual effects team.[81] The show used real guns, although they were usually unloaded.[68] Out of respect for the actors and extras involved, filming of nudity was conducted on a closed set, and for sex scenes, a sex consultant was used.[82]

Production was temporarily halted for a couple of months in early 2016 so that showrunners Nolan and Joy could complete the scripts for the last four episodes of the first season.[83] The climax of the first season's finale was filmed at Paramount Ranch in April 2016, with approximately 300 people on set.[84] The crew spent 10 days in May striking the set, which included having to modify structures installed by the filmmakers, such as the chapel, so that HBO's "intellectual property" would not be "violated."[84]

Production on the second season began in July 2017.[22]

The series' title sequence was created by production studio Elastic, which had previously created the title sequences for Rome, Carnivle and Game of Thrones for HBO. Patrick Clair acted as creative director for the title sequence,[85][86] which took about five weeks to conceptualize.[87]

Clair met with Nolan and Joy in February 2016 to discuss its development. He was interested in their decision to approach the show's point of view from that of the hosts, deeming the result an inherent psychological study. Upon its inception, the sequence would translate elements present in the series via computer-aided design. For example, once Clair was sent footage by composer Ramin Djawadi of a player piano in motion, its actual counterpart, situated in the Westworld production office, was photographed and then reconstructed in computer-generated imagery.[56][87] Nolan also applied the self-playing instrument in reference to Kurt Vonnegut's first novel Player Piano. It was meant to represent the first Rube Goldberg machine to evoke human motion.[57] Clair saw the metaphor behind the player piano"a primitive form of robot"as an exploration into the disparity between man and machine "being created to be made redundant." Hosts that were bathed in white liquid struck Clair as a juxtaposition of the grit and grain of the Western genre with its basis in science fiction. Motifs of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man came about from Clair's wish to convey Westworld's depiction of the naked human body.[56] The sequence also references Chris Cunningham's 1999 music video for the Bjrk song "All Is Full of Love", in a way that Clair called "a bit shameless... because I worship Chris Cunningham and ... it seemed like the perfect place to do it because it was dealing with all the right themes and all the right aesthetics."[87]

The sequence commences with the rib cage of a horse, along with a set of hosts manufactured by industrial robots. The skeletal horse is shown in mid-gallop to subvert the iconography of such a depiction.[87] As for Clair's efforts in exposing the Western landscapes in connection with a world of robotics, he thought it sensible that it be done inside a single eye; craters and valleys are formed as the simulacrum of an iris.[56]

The music is composed by Ramin Djawadi, who also worked with showrunner Nolan on the TV series Person of Interest.[88] The main theme blends the use of bass notes, light arpeggios and melody, all of which complement the idea of an amusement park.[89] The first season soundtrack was released on December 5, 2016.[90]

Djawadi spoke about the modern songs used in the show, stating, "The show has an anachronistic feel to it, it's a Western theme park, and yet it has robots in it, so why not have modern songs? And that's a metaphor in itself, wrapped up in the overall theme of the show",[91] but credited Nolan with coming up with the idea.[92]

Player piano and strings renditions featured in Westworld include Radiohead's "No Surprises",[93] "Fake Plastic Trees", "Motion Picture Soundtrack" and "Exit Music (For a Film)",[94] Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black",[57] Scott Joplin's "Pine Apple Rag"[95] and "Peacherine Rag", Claude Debussy's "Reverie L.68",[96] The Cure's "A Forest",[97] The Animals' version of "The House of the Rising Sun", Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" and Nine Inch Nails' "Something I Can Never Have".[98] Licensing costs ranged from $15,000 to $55,000.[99]

The series premiered October 2, 2016 in North America and Australia,[100][101][102] and on October 4, 2016 in the UK and Ireland.[103] The series is broadcast on HBO in the United States, on HBO Canada in Canada, on HBO Latin America in Mexico, in Australia on Showcase,[104][102] and in the UK and Ireland on Sky Atlantic.[103]

The second episode was released on HBO in the US on October 7two days ahead of the episode's announced broadcast dateto avoid competing with the second U.S. presidential debate of 2016.[105][106]

Prior to the airing of Westworld, HBO held virtual reality exhibits at events like San Diego Comic-Con and Techcrunch Disrupt devoted to Westworld: A Delos Destination. Attendees were allowed to navigate the process by which guests would enter Westworld, and interact with the 3D environment.[57][107][108] Made to run on the HTC Vive virtual reality headset, the piece was conceived by showrunners Nolan and Joy. It was designed using Unreal Engine 4, combining computer-generated content and live action 360-degree video. Users received a binary code, permitting access to the website DiscoverWestworld.com as part of a viral marketing campaign. Visitors were shown a trailer of a fictional travel site, leading them to order a trip to Westworld. A chatbot featured on the website, named Aeden, is available as a Google Assistant action on the smart speaker Google Home.[109]

The first season of Westworld (subtitled The Maze) was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 7, 2017. It is the first scripted TV series to be released on 4K Blu-ray in the United States.[110]

Reception of the series has been largely positive, with particular praise for the visuals, story, and performances.[111][112][113] On the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 88% based on 78 reviews, with an average rating of 8.13/10, and an average episode score of 94%. The site's consensus reads "With an impressive level of quality that honors its source material, the brilliantly addictive Westworld balances intelligent, enthralling drama against outright insanity."[114] On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[115]

The editors of TV Guide placed Westworld fifth among the top ten picks for the most anticipated new shows of the 201617 season. In writer Tim Surette's overall review, he notes the perfect concept of blending the western premise into a futuristic setting, saying, "Well, Westworld has both, ensuring that it will be an exciting mashup of genres that will disrupt a television landscape that typically says we can only have one or the other." He also added, "The look of the show and its fine cast swing open the saloon doors, but the real treat will be the intelligent discussion of whether or not robots will eventually kill us all. Thankfully, creator Jonathan Nolan already showed us he's the go-to guy for A.I. with Person of Interest."[116] Mary McNamara of Los Angeles Times wrote in a lauded review, "It isnt just great television, its vivid, thought-provoking television that entertains even as it examines the darker side of entertainment."[117] Writing for San Francisco Chronicle, David Wiegand said, "Westworld isnt easy to understand at first, but you will be hooked nonetheless by unusually intelligent storytelling, powerful visuals and exceptionally nuanced performances."[118] Time's chief critic Daniel D'Addario wrote, "Its carefully chosen details add up to a pulp spectacular thats more thoughtful than any other of this falls new dramas."[119]

Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly also lauded the series and said, "The depth of Westworld lies not in asking questions about memory, free will, and what makes us human, but in whether we can become more human than what we let ourselves to be, whether our stories can be richer and more meaningful than what the culture allows."[120] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe quipped, "Westworld has fewer heroes than Game of Thrones, which makes it a bit harder to warm up to, but like a good, thought-provoking puzzle, it is compelling and addictive."[121] In a brief review from The Hollywood Reporter, Tim Goodman said, "Where Westworld is at its best is in the deeper issues that will unspool slowly, like a good mystery. Early episodes are adept at getting at the base attractions of the park and why people would come, but also in setting up a sense of confusion about motives. ... The series benefits from a number of standout performances."[122] Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote, "The reward, beyond the visual splendors youve come to expect from big-budget HBO productions, is a set of characters who grow ever more complex."[123] Several other publications wrote positive reviews, including Indiewire,[124] The A.V. Club,[125] RogerEbert.com,[126] The New Yorker,[127] and The Atlantic.[128]

However, in a moderate review for The New York Times, chief critic James Poniewozik said, "Its an ambitious, if not entirely coherent, sci-fi shoot-em-up that questions nihilistic entertainment impulses while indulging them."[129] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post also joins Poniewozik saying, "Westworld off as a dreary trot from start to finish; parts of it are as imaginative and intriguing as anything thats been on TV recently, particularly in the sci-fi realm," and further said, "Its definitely not the cyborg Deadwood, that some HBO fans were actively wishing for, nor does it roll out the welcome mat as a riveting, accessible adventure."[130] Chief journalist Rob Owen of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also critiqued the show less favorably saying, "It is the definition of a slow-burn series, a program that should be exciting rendered as kind of dull."[131] In a less enthusiastic review for Variety, Maureen Ryan said, "Westworld looks terrific; its directors have shot its Western locations to stunning effect. But its warmly saturated outdoor scenes and its surface slickness arent enough to mask the indecision, condescension, and hollowness at its core."[132]

The series premiere had viewership numbers slightly less than those for True Detective, but much better than Vinyl, that meant it was seen as "...off to a relatively promising start..."[142][143] Mandy Adams, of iTechPost noted that, "Emotional reactions on Twitter were estimated to be 545-percent greater compared to the debut of Vinyl and 326-percent higher than the latest The Leftovers season."[144] The U.S. series premiere attracted 1.96 million viewers, with 0.8 million in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic.[33] The premiere episode received 3.3 million viewers for its three Sunday night airings as well as on HBO's streaming platforms.[145] The season one finale received 2.2 million viewers for its initial broadcast, and increased to 3.5 million including replays and on-demand viewing. The first season had an average cumulative viewership of 12 million viewers, making it the most-watched first season of an HBO series,[6] and TorrentFreak gauged Westworld as the third most-torrented television show of 2016.[146]

Westworld has been nominated for 22 Emmy Awards,[147] 3 Golden Globe Awards, 2 Satellite Awards, 4 Critics' Choice Television Awards, and 2 Writers Guild of America Awards.

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