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 (Joinville & Itajaí Valley). Most of the non-capital large cities in Brazil are in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina and Paraná.

Few of the principal Brazilian cities are planned cities; the most famous of these is a city called Brasília, which represents the Modernist school of architecture and urbanism.

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

[edit] 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 estimatives of 2009 ^[3]

State capitals are in bold

Rank	City	State	Population
1	São Paulo	São Paulo	11.037.593
2	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	6.186.710
3	Salvador	Bahia	2.998.056
4	Brasília	Distrito Federal	2.606.885
5	Fortaleza	Ceará	2.505.552
6	Belo Horizonte	Minas Gerais	2.452.617
7	Curitiba	Paraná	1.851.215
8	Manaus	Amazonas	1.738.641
9	Recife	Pernambuco	1.561.659
10	Belém	Pará	1.437.600
11	Porto Alegre	Rio Grande do Sul	1.436.123
12	Guarulhos	São Paulo	1.299.283
13	Goiânia	Goiás	1.281.975
14	Campinas	São Paulo	1.064.669
15	São Luís	Maranhão	997.098
16	São Gonçalo	Rio de Janeiro	991.382
17	Maceió	Alagoas	936.314
18	Duque de Caxias	Rio de Janeiro	872.762
19	Nova Iguaçu	Rio de Janeiro	865.089
20	São Bernardo do Campo	São Paulo	810.979
21	Natal	Rio Grande do Norte	806.203
22	Teresina	Piauí	802.537
23	Campo Grande	Mato Grosso do Sul	755.107
24	Osasco	São Paulo	718.646
25	João Pessoa	Paraíba	702.235
26	Jaboatão dos Guararapes	Pernambuco	687.688
27	Santo André	São Paulo	673.396
28	Uberlândia	Minas Gerais	634.345
29	Contagem	Minas Gerais	625.393
30	São José dos Campos	São Paulo	615.871
31	Feira de Santana	Bahia	591.707
32	Sorocaba	São Paulo	584.313
33	Ribeirão Preto	São Paulo	563.107
34	Cuiabá	Mato Grosso	550.562
35	Aracaju	Sergipe	544.039
36	Juiz de Fora	Minas Gerais	526.706
37	Aparecida de Goiânia	Goiás	510.770
38	Londrina	Paraná	510.707
39	Ananindeua	Pará	505.512
40	Belford Roxo	Rio de Janeiro	501.544
41	Joinville	Santa Catarina	497.331
42	Niterói	Rio de Janeiro	479.384
43	São João de Meriti	Rio de Janeiro	469.827
44	Betim	Minas Gerais	441.748
45	Campos dos Goitacazes	Rio de Janeiro	434.008
46	São José do Rio Preto	São Paulo	419.632
47	Mauá	São Paulo	417.458
48	Santos	São Paulo	417.098
49	Vila Velha	Espírito Santo	413.548
50	Caxias do Sul	Rio Grande do Sul	410.166
51	Florianópolis	Santa Catarina	408.161
52	Serra	Espírito Santo	404.688
53	Diadema	São Paulo	397.738
54	Olinda	Pernambuco	397.268
55	Carapicuíba	São Paulo	392.701
56	Campina Grande	Paraíba	383.764
57	Porto Velho	Rondônia	382.829
58	Mogi das Cruzes	São Paulo	375.268
59	Piracicaba	São Paulo	368.843
60	Macapá	Amapá	366.484
61	Cariacica	Espírito Santo	365.859
62	Montes Claros	Minas Gerais	363.227
63	Bauru	São Paulo	359.429
64	Itaquaquecetuba	São Paulo	359.253
65	Jundiaí	São Paulo	349.929
66	Ribeirão das Neves	Minas Gerais	349.307
67	Pelotas	Rio Grande do Sul	345.181
68	Anápolis	Goiás	335.960
69	Maringá	Paraná	335.511
70	Caucaia	Ceará	334.364
71	Canoas	Rio Grande do Sul	332.056
72	Franca	São Paulo	330.938
73	São Vicente	São Paulo	330.795
74	Foz do Iguaçu	Paraná	325.137
75	Vitória	Espírito Santo	320.156
76	Paulista	Pernambuco	319.373
77	Vitória da Conquista	Bahia	318.901
78	Petrópolis	Rio de Janeiro	315.119
79	Ponta Grossa	Paraná	314.681
80	Guarujá	São Paulo	308.058
81	Rio Branco	Acre	305.954
82	Blumenau	Santa Catarina	299.416
83	Caruaru	Pernambuco	298.501
84	Uberaba	Minas Gerais	296.261
85	Cascavel	Paraná	296.254
86	Petrolina	Pernambuco	285,339
87	Suzano	São Paulo	284.356
88	Limeira	São Paulo	281.583
89	São José dos Pinhais	Paraná	279.297
90	Santarém	Pará	276.665
91	Taubaté	São Paulo	273.426
91	Barueri	São Paulo	270.173
93	Gravataí	Rio Grande do Sul	269.446
94	Santa Maria	Rio Grande do Sul	268.969
95	Boa Vista	Roraima	266.901
96	Governador Valadares	Minas Gerais	263.274
97	Volta Redonda	Rio de Janeiro	261.403
98	Viamão	Rio Grande do Sul	260.740
99	Novo Hamburgo	Rio Grande do Sul	257.746
100	Juazeiro do Norte	Ceará	249.829

[edit] Largest metropolitan areas

Currently, as of 2009^[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) live. These RMs are responsible for approximately half of the Brazilian GDP and more than 70% of the Brazilian annual industrial production.

IBGE estimatives of 2007, 2008 and 2009 ^[3]

Rank	Metropolitan Area	State	Population
1	São Paulo	São Paulo	19,889,559 3
2	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	11,902,701 2
3	Belo Horizonte	Minas Gerais	5,397,438 2
4	Porto Alegre	Rio Grande do Sul	4,063,886 3
5	Salvador	Bahia	3,866,004 2
6	Recife	Pernambuco	3,768,902 3
7	Fortaleza	Ceará	3,602,319 2
8	Brasília	Distrito Federal,  Minas Gerais and  Goiás	3,451,549 1
9	Curitiba	Paraná	3,172,357 1
10	Campinas	São Paulo	2,633,523 1
11	Belém	Pará	2,249,405 2
12	Goiânia	Goiás	2,102,097 3
13	Manaus	Amazonas	2,042,185 3
14	Vitória	Espírito Santo	1,624,837 1
15	Baixada Santista	São Paulo	1,606,863 1
16	Natal	Rio Grande do Norte	1,312,123 1
17	São Luís	Maranhão	1,211,270 1
18	Maceió	Alagoas	1,160,393 3
19	João Pessoa	Paraíba	1,146,461 3
20	Teresina	Piauí and  Maranhão	1,116,303 2
21	Cuiabá	Mato Grosso	815,392 2
22	Petrolina and Juazeiro	Pernambuco and  Bahia	812,515 1
23	Aracaju	Sergipe	794,475 3
24	Londrina	Paraná	766,682 3
25	Maringá	Paraná	570,094 2
26	Juazeiro do Norte	Ceará	554,945 2
27	Macapá	Amapá	463,704 2
28	Vale do Aço	Minas Gerais	449,340 2
29	Imperatriz	Maranhão	334,650 2

¹ Data of 2007.
² Data of 2008.
³ Data of 2009.

[edit] References

[edit] 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