How many zeros are there in a billion?

TThere is some confusion regarding this concept, since not all the countries make use of the same pattern. Portugal uses the same nomenclature of most of the European countries such as Spain, Italy, France, England, Germany, and so on. But the United States and Brazil for instance use another formula to represent numbers, which sometimes gives rise to some confusion.

Till we reach a million, the meaning is the same everywhere, but things change forward depending on the country we are in. In The United States 1 billion corresponds to a thousand million in Portuguese, which has 9 zeros, as we can notice in the number written above. In order to better understand the difference, let’s have a look at the following table:

Out of curiosity, there is also another important difference between the numbers used on both sides of the Atlantic. In Portugal we use a comma as a decimal divider and the point as a divider of thousands. In The United States is just the opposite.

Check out our List of Questions to get to know a little more about the most diverse topics related to mathematics. If you have any pertinent (math) question whose answer can not easily be found, send us an email on the Contact page with the question. We will be happy to respond. In the event that you detect any errors in our answers, do not hesitate to contact us!