Greater Rio de Janeiro

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This article is about Rio de Janeiro. For a samba school, see GRES Acadêmicos do Grande Rio.

Satellite image of the metropolitan area, with the capital from the center below, Baixada Fluminense on the north-west and Niterói and São Gonçalo east of the Guanabara Bay

The Greater Rio de Janeiro (Grande Rio, officially Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro, in Portuguese) is a large metropolitan area located in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. It consists of 16 municipalities, including the capital, Rio de Janeiro.

The metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro is known as a historical, cultural and economic centre of Brazil, with a total population of 11.4 million inhabitants. The region was first officially defined on July 1st 1974 after the fusion of the Guanabara State with Rio de Janeiro State. Several municipalities show a high level of conurbation, with Rio de Janeiro-Duque de Caxias and Niterói-São Gonçalo being the most clear examples.

The water supply plans of the region are coordinated, and transportation in the area is heavily interconnected with urban intermunicipal buses to all municipalities in the area, trains over the capital and some Baixada Fluminense municipalities, ferry boats to some of the Guanabara Bay municipalities and major inter-city freeways such as Ponte Rio-Niterói, Linha Vermelha, Rodovia Presidente Dutra and Rodovia Niterói-Manilha. Most transportation methods are integrated with the capital inner transportation system of buses, trains, subways, freeways and expressways.