How long is the Paraná River? South America's second river
The Paraná is about 4,880 km (3,032 miles) long. It is the second longest river in South America after the Amazon and the eighth in the world.
Lay the Paraná over your country
The river and a country at one scale. Pick a country, drag the river or switch the globe to the Mercator map.
Paraná: about 4,880 km (3,032 miles), about 1.2 times the straight-line distance from New York to Los Angeles (about 3,940 km).
Drag the river with your finger or mouse. It moves over the globe without changing shape or length, and its north stays up. The globe keeps the true proportions; on the Mercator map you can see how a river moved north grows.
Where the Paraná flows
The Paraná forms on the Brazilian Highlands where the Paranaíba and the Grande meet. It flows south, forms the border of Brazil with Paraguay and then of Paraguay with Argentina, and together with the Uruguay River empties into the Río de la Plata estuary on the Atlantic.
The Paraná basin covers about 2.8 million km². The river carries about 18,000 m³/s of water on average. The Itaipu Dam on the border of Brazil and Paraguay is one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world.
Rivers of similar length, straightened
Rivers drawn at one scale. Straighten them to compare their lengths and see how they look on a Mercator map.
On a Mercator map: about 5,400 km
On a Mercator map the Paraná looks about 5,400 km long (×1.11 its true length). Its course lies at middle latitudes, so the map stretches it by about 11%.
Open the Mercator mapHow long is it really?
About 4,880 km is the length measured from the headwaters of the Paranaíba. Some sources add the Río de la Plata estuary or start the river where the Paranaíba meets the Grande, so lists show different numbers.
The line on this page's maps is about 3,241 km long, shorter than the sources say, because a 1:10 million map smooths the bends and the mouth. That is why lengths here come from the sources, not from the drawing.
Paraná: questions and answers
The Paraná is about 4,880 km (3,032 miles) long according to Encyclopædia Britannica, measured from the headwaters of the Paranaíba. It is the second longest river in South America after the Amazon.
The Paraná forms on the Brazilian Highlands where the Paranaíba and the Grande rivers meet. Its most distant sources lie on the upper Paranaíba.
Together with the Uruguay River, the Paraná flows into the Río de la Plata estuary, which opens onto the Atlantic Ocean between Argentina and Uruguay.
Brazil, then along the borders of Brazil with Paraguay and of Paraguay with Argentina, and through Argentina.