Urbanized areas in Brazil are equivalent to 0.54% of total territory

Urbanized areas in Brazil are equivalent to only 0.54 percent of the total country´s territory, according to a study carried out by the government´s statistic agency IBGE, released on Wednesday (Nov. 23).

The overall distribution of urbanized areas in the country shows that there is still a strong concentration on the coast, following the historical pattern of settlement since the colonization period, the document reads.

In the 443 municipalities on Brazil`s coast, which occupy approximately 5 percent of the national territory, there is an extension of 9,166.79 square kilometers of urbanized areas - about 19 percent of the total country´s urbanized area.

On the other hand, along the municipalities of the border strip, with an extension of 2,265,046.64 km², about 27 percent of the national territory, there are 3,803.47 km² of urbanized areas, about 8 percent of the total, where one can note higher concentrations in the border areas of the Southern Region of the country and the state of Roraima.

According to the study, São Paulo is the state with the largest extension of urbanized areas, with 8,614.62 km², concentrating alone 18.39 percent of the total mapped regions.

The sum of the country's urbanized areas (45,945 km²) is larger than the territories of entire nations, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, IBGE manager Manuela Alvarenga explained.

Between 2015 and 2019, a 19 percent increase in urbanized areas has been reported, which indicates they are continuing to expand.

Brazil´s territory has a total area of 8.510 million km², according to IBGE