Palmelo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Palmelo is a small town in southeast Goiás state, Brazil. It is the smallest municipality in the state and the only town in Brazil where most of the inhabitants follow the religion called Spiritism.
- Population (2005): 2,426
- Area of the municipality (2002): 58.99km²
- Elevation: 754 meters
- Became a city: 1953
- Statistical microregion: Pires do Rio Microregion
- Postal code: 75210-000
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[edit] Location
The distance to the state capital, Goiânia, is 128 km. Highway connections are made by BR-352 / Bela Vista de Goiás / Cristianópolis / BR-352 / GO-020 / Santa Cruz de Goiás. [1]
The municipality is bounded on north, south, and east by Pires do Rio and on the west by Santa Cruz de Goiás. It is crossed by the Ribeirão Caiapó and its tributaries: ribeirões São Jerônimo and Monjolinho, which flow into the Corumbá River.
[edit] Climate
The climate is moist tropical, with two well defined seasons: summer and winter. The summer is very rainy while the winter is very dry. The temperature varies between 16ºC and 26ºC.
[edit] Political Information
In January 2005 the Mayor was Geraldo Afonso Leite. The city council had 9 members and there were 1,766 eligible voters in April 2006.
[edit] Demographic Information
In 2005 the population density was 41.12 inhab/km². In 2003 there were 2,252 people living in the urban area and 114 living in the rural area. The population has increased by about 600 people since the first census in 1980.
[edit] Economy
The main economic activity is cattle raising, both for meat and milk and the region also produces a lot of clay for brick making. In 2006 there was a dairy--Centrolac Indústria e Comércio Ltda--and 3 small industrial units employing 53 workers. There were 14 commercial units employing 74 workers. In 2004 there were 165 automobiles in the municipality.
In 2004 there were only 3,000 head of cattle. The poultry industry was developed with 196,900 head. The main agricultural products were oranges, manioc, and corn. All were of modest production due to the small area of the municipality.
[edit] Health and Education
In 2003 there was 1 hospital, with 18 beds and 2 ambulatory health clinics. There were 6 doctors, 1 nurse, and 2 dentists. In 2000 the infant mortality rate was 9.80--much lower than the national average of 33.0 and one of the lowest in the state. It 1990 it had been 40.97.
In 2005 the school system had 3 schools, 18 classrooms, 37 teachers, and 721 students. There were 118 students in the middle school. In 2000 the adult literacy rate was 85.3%--lower than the national average of 86.4%.
[edit] Income Distribution
In 2000 there were 705 households, of which 287 declared an income of less than 1 minimum salary.
[edit] Tourism
One of the greatest attractions is Spiritism and people from all over the country come seeking cures for their illnesses.
[edit] History
The city was founded on February 9th, 1929, when a group of 18 people founded a Spiritist center called Luz da Verdade. These people had converted to Spiritism after seeing the alleged cure of a medium, Dorcelino Damásio da Silva, who had suffered from a disease called fogo selvagem. In 1953 Palmelo became a municipality separating from Pires do Rio. It is probably the only town in Brazil and in the world where most of the inhabitants are Spiritists.
Ranking on the United Nations Municipal Human Development Index
- Life expectancy: 75.7
- Adult literacy rate: 0.839
- School attendance rate: 0.846
- MHDI: 0.787
- State ranking: 18 (out of 242 municipalities)
- National ranking: 891 (out of 5,507 municipalities)
(All data are from 2000)
For the complete list see Frigoletto.com
