Regions of Brazil

Regions of Brazil

Map of the five regions of Brazil

  • Political
  • Brazil
  • Instituto Brasileño de Geografía y Estadística
The regions of Brazil are five groups of federal units (states or districts) in which the federation is divided. They are united according to territorial proximity and geographic features such as landscapes and similar types of soil. The purpose of the division of the country into regions is statistical and economic. There is, therefore, no type of political autonomy for the regions.

This division is legal and was proposed by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) in 1969. The IBGE considered only natural aspects in the division of the country, such as climate, relief, vegetation and hydrography; For this reason, the regions are also known as natural regions of Brazil. There is a small exception in relation to the Southeast region, which was created taking into account partially human aspects such as the degree of industrial and urban development.

The Brazilian regions are:

  • Central-West Region, which is comprised of the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Distrito Federal (Federal District), as well as the Federal District. It has a territory of 1 604 852 km2 (18.9% of the national territory) and a population of around 12 million inhabitants.
  • Northeast Region, which is made up of the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe. It has a territory of 1 556 001 km2 (18.2% of the national territory), within which is located the Das das Polígono, and a population just over 50 million inhabitants.
  • Northern Region, which is made up of the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins. It has a territory of 3 851 560 km2 (45.2% of the national territory) and a population just over 14 million inhabitants, which makes it the region with the lowest demographic density in all of Brazil.
  • Southeast Region, which is made up of the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo. It has a territory of 927 286 km2 (10.9% of the national territory) and a population of around 77 million inhabitants.
  • Southern Region, which is made up of the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina. It has a territory of 575 316 km2 (6.8% of the national territory) and a population of more than 26 million inhabitants.

  • The boundaries of the regions always coincide with state boundaries, there being no states whose territories are divided into two different regions.