Urbanization
Main article: List of largest cities in BrazilAccording to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) urban areas already concentrate 84.35% of the population, while the Southeast region remains the most populated one, with over 80 million inhabitants. The largest metropolitan areas in Brazil are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte — all in the Southeastern Region — with 19.5, 11.5, and 5.1 million inhabitants respectively.
Almost all of the state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina. There are also non-capital metropolitan areas in the states of São Paulo (Campinas, Santos and the Paraíba Valley), Minas Gerais (Steel Valley), Rio Grande do Sul (Sinos Valley) and Santa Catarina (Itajaí Valley).
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Largest cities or towns of Brazil 2010 Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimate |
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| Rank | City name | State | Pop. | Rank | City name | State | Pop. | ||
São Paulo
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1 | São Paulo | São Paulo | 11,316,149 | 11 | Belém | Pará | 1,402,056 | Salvador
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| 2 | Rio de Janeiro | Rio de Janeiro | 6,355,949 | 12 | Goiânia | Goiás | 1,318,148 | ||
| 3 | Salvador | Bahia | 3,093,605 | 13 | Guarulhos | São Paulo | 1,233,426 | ||
| 4 | Brasília | Distrito Federal | 2,609,997 | 14 | Campinas | São Paulo | 1,088,611 | ||
| 5 | Fortaleza | Ceará | 2,476,589 | 15 | São Luís | Maranhão | 1,027,429 | ||
| 6 | Belo Horizonte | Minas Gerais | 2,385,639 | 16 | São Gonçalo | Rio de Janeiro | 1,008,064 | ||
| 7 | Manaus | Amazonas | 1,832,423 | 17 | Maceió | Alagoas | 943,109 | ||
| 8 | Curitiba | Paraná | 1,764,540 | 18 | Duque de Caxias | Rio de Janeiro | 861,157 | ||
| 9 | Recife | Pernambuco | 1,536,934 | 19 | Teresina | Piauí | 822,363 | ||
| 10 | Porto Alegre | Rio Grande do Sul | 1,413,094 | 20 | Natal | Rio Grande do Norte | 810,780 | ||
Read more about this topic: Subdivisions Of Brazil, Demographics