IBGE: Florianópolis, Vitória and Campinas are Brazilian metropolises
Florianópolis, Vitória and the São Paulo municipality of Campinas are the three new Brazilian metropolises, according to the 2021 Regional Urban Division study, released today (15) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). With this new configuration, the number of metropolises increased from 12, in 2013, to 15.
The survey provides a regional view of Brazil, identifying and delimiting new regional designs, the Regions of Urban Articulation. All identified regions are formed from a city that commands its region, establishing relationships between agents and companies in their respective territories. The Urban Articulation Regions identified in this study were based on the results of the research Regions of Influence of Cities - Regic 2018.
“The emergence of new centralities in areas already occupied by old metropolises is just one of the aspects that can be perceived by the temporal analysis of the territorial sections elaborated”, points out the survey.
The analysis showed that no other expanded region in Brazil has undergone such significant changes as Rio de Janeiro. “The expanded region of the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro has been going through a moment of contraction that, in part, can be explained by the emergence of Vitória to the condition of a metropolis, as well as by the greater polarization of the area of influence of Belo Horizonte. Thus, Rio de Janeiro, despite being one of the oldest and most consolidated metropolises in the country, has lost, over the last few years, areas that were traditionally related to it, such as the population arrangement of Juiz de Fora/MG”.
According to IBGE, another highlight is the retraction of the expanded region of São Paulo, rivaled by the regions of Belo Horizonte and Curitiba. São Paulo, but relevant enough to drive broader movements of attractiveness to a population dispersed in nearby cities, is another change that proves the dynamism of the urban network, even in its oldest and most consolidated points”, says the study.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Brasília and Goiânia, together with Anápolis (GO), form a dynamic axis and strengthen their participation in the Center-West region and at the national level due to the fact that Brasília is the capital.
According to research analyst Maria Monica O'Neill, the study identified metropolises that lost prominence and began to share the space they occupied with other urban centers. “We observed the emergence of Florianópolis as a metropolis, which inserted a new region commanded by the capital of Santa Catarina between Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Previously, these spaces were divided between Curitiba and Porto Alegre”, said the researcher.
Another important change from 2013 is the fact that Belo Horizonte captures the influence over the cities of the Triângulo Mineiro and Juiz de Fora, which traditionally were part of the expanded regions of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively.
In the Northeast Region, the centrality of the capital of Pernambuco appears extended in comparison with the edition of the study carried out in 2013. “In this edition, vast portions of the Brazilian territory, such as the intermediate region of Mossoró (RN), to the north, captured from Fortaleza; and the state of Sergipe, to the south, which leaves the influence of Salvador, illustrate the current relevance of the centrality of Pernambuco, effected by the area of the expanded region of Recife”, points out the IBGE.
The study also shows the consolidation of the importance of the region called Matopiba, formed by mostly cerrado areas in the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia. IBGE analyst Mauricio Silva highlighted that the survey demonstrates the strengthening of cities along the Manaus-Belém axis due to agribusiness.
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
