List of largest cities in Brazil

This is a list of the largest cities in Brazil. Brazil has a relatively high reported level of urbanization, with 8 out of every 10 Brazilians living in cities. The criteria used by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in determining whether households are urban or rural, however, is based on political divisions, not on the built environment.

A town is any seat of a district (the lowest political division); a city is the seat of a municipality. Nowadays, the country has more than 5,564 municipalities.^[1] About 81.3% of Brazilians live in an urban area.^[2]

State capitals are also each the largest city in its state, the exceptions being Vitória in Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina; there are also non-capital metropolitan areas in São Paulo (Campinas, Santos, Paraíba Valley), Minas Gerais (Vale do Aço), Rio Grande do Sul (Sinos Valley), and Santa Catarina (Itajaí Valley). Most of the non-capital large cities in Brazil are in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Paraná.

Some of the principal Brazilian cities are planned cities; the most famous of these is Brasília, which represents, with Chandigarh in the Punjab, India, the acme of the Modernist school of architecture and urbanism.

Contents 1 Top 100 most populous cities 2 Largest metropolitan areas 3 References 4 See also

Top 100 most populous cities

This list of the 100 most populous cities is based on the population of the município where the city is located, rather than its metropolitan area.

IBGE estimates of 2008 ^[3]

State capitals are in bold

Rank	City	State	Population
1	São Paulo	São Paulo	10,990,249
2	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	6,161,047
3	Salvador	Bahia	2,948,733
4	Brasília	Distrito Federal	2,557,158
5	Fortaleza	Ceará	2,473,614
6	Belo Horizonte	Minas Gerais	2,434,642
7	Curitiba	Paraná	1,828,092
8	Manaus	Amazonas	1,709,010
9	Recife	Pernambuco	1,549,980
10	Porto Alegre	Rio Grande do Sul	1,430,220
11	Belém	Pará	1,424,124
12	Guarulhos	São Paulo	1,279,202
13	Goiânia	Goiás	1,265,394
14	Campinas	São Paulo	1,056,664
15	São Luís	Maranhão	986,826
16	São Gonçalo	Rio de Janeiro	982,832
17	Maceió	Alagoas	924,143
18	Duque de Caxias	Rio de Janeiro	864,392
19	Nova Iguaçu	Rio de Janeiro	855,500
20	São Bernardo do Campo	São Paulo	801,580
21	Teresina	Piauí	793,915
22	Natal	Rio Grande do Norte	798,065
23	Campo Grande	Mato Grosso do Sul	747,189
24	Osasco	São Paulo	713,066
25	Santo André	São Paulo	671,696
26	João Pessoa	Paraíba	693,082
27	Jaboatão dos Guararapes	Pernambuco	678,346
28	Uberlândia	Minas Gerais	622,441
29	São José dos Campos	São Paulo	609,229
30	Contagem	Minas Gerais	617,749
31	Sorocaba	São Paulo	576,312
32	Ribeirão Preto	São Paulo	558,136
33	Cuiabá	Mato Grosso	544,737
34	Feira de Santana	Bahia	584,497
35	Juiz de Fora	Minas Gerais	520,612
36	Aracaju	Sergipe	536,785
37	Londrina	Paraná	505,184
38	Ananindeua	Pará	495,480
39	Joinville	Santa Catarina	492,101
The estimates below are from 2006 (IBGE) unless otherwise stated
40	Belford Roxo	Rio de Janeiro	489,002
41	Niterói	Rio de Janeiro	476,669
42	São João de Meriti	Rio de Janeiro	466,996
43	Aparecida de Goiânia	Goiás	453,104
44	Campos dos Goitacazes	Rio de Janeiro	429,667
45	Santos	São Paulo	418,375
46	São José do Rio Preto	São Paulo	415,508
47	Mauá	São Paulo	413,943
48	Caxias do Sul	Rio Grande do Sul	412,053
49	Betim	Minas Gerais	407,003
50	Florianópolis	Santa Catarina	406,564
51	Vila Velha	Espírito Santo	405,374
52	Diadema	São Paulo	395,333
53	Serra	Espírito Santo	394,370
54	Carapicuíba	São Paulo	389,634
55	Olinda	Pernambuco	387,494
56	Porto Velho	Rondônia	380,988
57	Campina Grande	Paraíba	379,871
58	Mogi das Cruzes	São Paulo	372,419
59	Macapá	Amapá	368,367
60	Piracicaba	São Paulo	366,442
61	Cariacica	Espírito Santo	361,058
62	Bauru	São Paulo	356,680
63	Itaquaquecetuba	São Paulo	352,755
64	Montes Claros	Minas Gerais	348,995
65	Jundiaí	São Paulo	348,621
66	Pelotas	Rio Grande do Sul	346,452
67	Canoas	Rio Grande do Sul	333,322
68	São Vicente	São Paulo	329,370
69	Franca	São Paulo	328,121
70	Maringá	Paraná	324,397
71	Ribeirão das Neves	Minas Gerais	322,969
72	Anápolis	Goiás	318,808
73	Vitória	Espírito Santo	317,085
74	Rio Branco	Acre	314,127
75	Caucaia	Ceará	313,584
76	Petrópolis	Rio de Janeiro	310,216
77	Foz do Iguaçu	Paraná	309,113
78	Guarujá	São Paulo	305,171
79	Ponta Grossa	Paraná	304,973
80	Paulista	Pernambuco	299,744
81	Blumenau	Santa Catarina	298,603
82	Vitória da Conquista	Bahia	289,772
83	Governador Valadares	Minas Gerais	289,612
84	Uberaba	Minas Gerais	285,094
85	Cascavel	Paraná	284,083
86	Caruaru	Pernambuco	283,152
87	Suzano	São Paulo	280,318
88	Limeira	São Paulo	279,554
89	Santarém	Pará	276,074
90	Taubaté	São Paulo	271,660
91	Gravataí	Rio Grande do Sul	270,763
92	Santa Maria	Rio Grande do Sul	270,073
93	Barueri	São Paulo	265,549
94	Viamão	Rio Grande do Sul	261,971
95	São José dos Pinhais	Paraná	261,125
96	Petrolina	Pernambuco	260,004
97	Novo Hamburgo	Rio Grande do Sul	258,754
98	Volta Redonda	Rio de Janeiro	258,145
99	Várzea Grande	Mato Grosso	254,736
100	Boa Vista	Roraima	249,655

Largest metropolitan areas

Currently, as of 2004^[update], IBGE officially recognizes 15 major RMs (Região Metropolitana; Metropolitan Region in English), where approximately 32% of the Brazilian population (55 million people out of 180 million) lives. These RMs are responsible for approximately half of the Brazilian GDP and more than 70% of the Brazilian annual industrial production.

IBGE estimatives of 2006 ^[3]

Rank	Metropolitan Area	State	Population
1	São Paulo	São Paulo	20,500,000
2	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	11,351,937 1
3	Belo Horizonte	Minas Gerais	5,357,942
4	Porto Alegre	Rio Grande do Sul	4,101,042
5	Recife	Pernambuco	3,646,204
6	Fortaleza	Ceará	3,415,455
7	Salvador	Bahia	3,408,273
8	Curitiba	Paraná	3,261,168
9	Campinas	São Paulo	2,687,099
10	Belém	Pará	2,086,906
11	Goiânia	Goiás	2,013,073 1
12	Santos²	São Paulo	1,666,453
13	Vitória³	Espírito Santo	1,627,651
14	Natal	Rio Grande do Norte	1,266,507
15	São Luís	Maranhão	1,255,879
16	Maceió	Alagoas	1,116,075 1
17	João Pessoa	Paraíba	1,062,801
18	Joinville	Santa Catarina	1,024,212 1
19	Florianópolis	Santa Catarina	841,552
-	Uberlândia4	Minas Gerais	818,395 1,1
20	Londrina	Paraná	739,195 1
21	Aracaju	Sergipe	708,345
22	Maringá	Paraná	576,581 1
23	Itajaí	Santa Catarina	465,225
24	Macapá	Amapá	458,008
25	Vale do Aço	Minas Gerais	445,441
26	Vale do Itajaí	Santa Catarina	449,726 1
27	Criciúma	Santa Catarina	318,027 1
28	Tubarão	Santa Catarina	128,545

¹ Data of 2005.
^1,1 Data of 2007.
² Also known as Baixada Santista.
³ Though Vitória is Espírito Santo's capital, the largest city in the state and in this metropolitan region is Vila Velha.
⁴ Not defined legally.

References

See also

• List of cities in Brazil
• List of largest cities in Brazil by state
• Largest metropolitan areas in the Americas
• Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics