Federative units of Brazil Unidades federativas do Brasil
Map of modern federated units of Brazil
Category	Federated state
Location	Federative Republic of Brazil
Number	26 states and 1 federal district
Populations	636,707 ( Roraima ) ? 44,411,238 ( Sao Paulo )
Areas	5,761 km 2 (2,224 sq mi) ( Federal District ) ? 1,559,168 km 2 (601,998 sq mi) ( Amazonas )
Government	State government Federal government
Subdivisions	Municipalities

The federative units of Brazil ( Portuguese : unidades federativas do Brasil ) are subnational entities with a certain degree of autonomy (self-government, self-regulation, and self-collection) and endowed with their own government and constitution, which together form the Federative Republic of Brazil . There are 26 states ( estados ) and one federal district ( distrito federal ). The states are generally based on historical, conventional borders which have developed over time. The states are divided into municipalities , while the Federal District assumes the competences of both a state and a municipality.

Government [ edit ]

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The government of each state of Brazil is divided into executive , legislative and judiciary branches.

The state executive branch is headed by a state governor and includes a vice governor, both elected by the citizens of the state. The governor appoints several secretaries of state (each one in charge of a given portfolio) and the state attorney-general. ^[1]

The state legislative branch is the legislative assembly, a unicameral body composed of deputies elected by the citizens of the state. ^[1]

The judiciary in each of the states is composed of judges of law, who constitute the courts of first instance , and a Court of Justice , which is the court of second instance of the state and is composed of judges called desembargadores . Judges qualify through exams or are appointed. ^[1]

The states are divided into municipalities , which have different competences and are considered autonomous from the states. Municipalities have a mayor, vice mayor and a chamber of aldermen, all elected by the citizens of the municipality, but do not have a separate judiciary. ^[1]

The Federal District has the same executive, legislative and judiciary organization as a state, but it cannot be divided into municipalities, which is why its territory is composed of several administrative regions . These regions are directly managed by the government of the Federal District, which exercises constitutional and legal powers that are equivalent to those of the states , as well as those of the municipalities, thus simultaneously assuming all the obligations arising from them. ^[1]

Fernando de Noronha is not a municipality, but a state district of Pernambuco (the only state district in the country). It is governed by an administrator-general, appointed by the governor of Pernambuco, and a council whose members are elected by the citizens of the district. ^[2]

All states and the Federal District are represented in the national congress , each with three senators and between eight and 70 deputies , depending on their population. The citizens of all states and the Federal District vote for these national representatives and for president and vice president .

History [ edit ]

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Terra Brasilis , Miller Atlas , 1519
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The present states of Brazil trace their history directly to the captaincies established by Portugal following the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the World between Portugal and Spain.

The first administrative divisions of Brazil were the hereditary captaincies ( capitanias hereditarias ), stretches of land granted by the Portuguese Crown to noblemen or merchants with a charter to colonize the land. The first such captaincy was the island of Sao Joao , granted in 1504 to Fernao de Loronha . The continental land was divided into captaincies in 1534, generally following lines of latitude, although some followed meridians or diagonal lines. ^[3] Each of the holders of these captaincies was referred to as a captain donatary ( capitao donatario ). The captaincies were to be inherited by the holders' descendants, but the Crown retained the power to reacquire them.

In 1549, the Portuguese Crown appointed Tome de Sousa as the first governor-general of the vast Portuguese dominion in South America, known as the State of Brazil ( Estado do Brasil ). In 1621, the northern part of the dominion was detached, becoming a separate entity known as the State of Maranhao . However, captaincies continued existing under both states as regional administrations. ^[4]

During the Iberian Union (1580?1640), which allowed Portuguese settlers to enter Spanish domains, the territory of Portuguese colonial domains in South America was more than doubled, with both states of Brazil and Maranhao greatly expanding westward. After the union ended, Portugal asserted its territorial claims, which Spain eventually accepted with the Treaty of Madrid in 1750. Several captaincies were created or merged during this period, in both the original and western domains, and some were returned to the Crown, becoming royal captaincies. ^[4]

The government of the Marquis of Pombal (1750?1777) significantly centralized the administration of the Portuguese colonies. By 1759, all captaincies had been returned to the Crown, with captains becoming appointed rather than recognized by inheritance. Some captaincies were designated as captaincies-general , to which other captaincies were subordinated. ^[4] In addition, the State of Grao-Para and Rio Negro and the State of Maranhao and Piaui , which had been split from the State of Maranhao, were reincorporated into the State of Brazil in 1775, under a single governor-general. This centralization later helped to keep Brazil as a unified nation-state, avoiding fragmentation similar to that of the Spanish domains.

The captaincies became provinces in 1821, during the final years of the Kingdom of Brazil ( united with Portugal ), and maintained that designation after independence in 1822 under the Empire of Brazil . Most internal boundaries were kept unchanged from the end of the colonial period, generally following natural features such as rivers and mountain ridges. Some changes were made to suit domestic politics (transferring the Triangulo Mineiro from Goias to Minas Gerais , transferring the south bank of the Sao Francisco River from Pernambuco to Minas Gerais and later to Bahia , separating the capital city of Rio de Janeiro as a Neutral Municipality outside any province, splitting Amazonas from Para , and splitting Parana from Sao Paulo ), as well as international border adjustments resulting from diplomatic settlement of territorial disputes. The Cisplatine Province was annexed into Brazil in 1821, declared independence as Uruguay in 1825, and was recognized by the Treaty of Montevideo in 1828.

When Brazil became a republic in 1889, all provinces became states, and the Neutral Municipality became the Federal District. In 1903, Brazil acquired the territory of Acre from Bolivia with the Treaty of Petropolis .

In 1942?1943, with the entrance of Brazil into World War II , the Vargas regime detached six strategic territories from the borders of the country to administer them directly: the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha (from Pernambuco), Amapa (from Para), Rio Branco (from Amazonas), Guapore (from Mato Grosso and Amazonas), Ponta Pora (from Mato Grosso) and Iguacu (from Parana and Santa Catarina ). ^{[5] [6] [7]} Shortly after the war, the Brazilian constitution of 1946 returned Ponta Pora and Iguacu to their original states. ^[8] Guapore was renamed Rondonia in 1956, ^[9] and Rio Branco was renamed Roraima in 1962, ^[10] while remaining territories along with Amapa and Fernando de Noronha. Acre became a state in 1962. ^[11]

In 1960, the rectangular-shaped Distrito Federal was carved out of Goias to contain the new capital, Brasilia . ^{[12] [13]} The previous federal district became the state of Guanabara , ^[8] but in 1975 it was reincorporated into its original state of Rio de Janeiro , becoming its capital as the city of Rio de Janeiro. ^[14]

In 1977, the southern part of Mato Grosso became the state of Mato Grosso do Sul . ^[15] In 1981, Rondonia became a state. ^[16] The Brazilian constitution of 1988 created the state of Tocantins from the northern portion of Goias, established Amapa and Roraima as states, and returned the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha to Pernambuco. ^[1] The constitution thus ended all remaining territories, although it maintained the possibility of creating others in the future.

Proposed federative states [ edit ]

Proposed division of Para [ edit ]

On 11 December 2011, a consultative referendum was held in the state of Para about creating two new states from parts of it ( Tapajos and Carajas , with the rest of the state remaining as Para). Both proposals were rejected by about 66% of statewide voters, but reflecting a strong geographic split with over 90% approval by voters in the proposed breakaway regions and over 90% disapproval by those in the rest of the state. ^{[17] [18]}

Maps [ edit ]

• 
  1534
  Captaincies of Brazil ^[a]
• 
  1709?1720/1761?1779
  Expansion and mergers ^[b]
• 
  1822
  Imperial provinces
• 
  1889
  States at the start of the republic ^[c]
• 
  1943
  Border territories
• 
  1988
  Current states

List [ edit ]

Flag and name	Code	Capital	Largest city	Area (km 2 ) [20]	Population (May 2023) [21]	Density (per km 2 , 2022)	GDP ( R$ millions, 2022) [22]	HDI (2022) [23]
Acre	AC	Rio Branco		164,123	830,018	6.34	21,000	0.719
Alagoas	AL	Maceio		27,779	3,127,683	125.52	73,000	0.683
Amapa	AP	Macapa		142,829	733,759	2.63	9000	0.740
Amazonas	AM	Manaus		1,559,159	3,941,613	2.58	103,000	0.733
Bahia	BA	Salvador		564,733	14,141,626	30.52	257,000	0.714
Ceara	CE	Fortaleza		148,921	8,794,957	60.33	157,000	0.735
Distrito Federal	DF	Brasilia		5,780	2,817,381	493.00	249,000	0.850
Espirito Santo	ES	Vitoria	Serra	46,096	3,833,712	80.63	125,000	0.772
Goias	GO	Goiania		340,112	7,056,495	18.46	202,000	0.769
Maranhao	MA	Sao Luis		331,937	6,776,699	19.03	102,000	0.687
Mato Grosso	MT	Cuiaba		903,366	3,658,649	4.01	142,000	0.774
Mato Grosso do Sul	MS	Campo Grande		357,146	2,880,308	7.83	107,000	0.766
Minas Gerais	MG	Belo Horizonte		586,522	21,279,353	31.72	583,000	0.787
Para	PA	Belem		1,247,955	8,639,532	7.02	156,000	0.698
Paraiba	PB	Joao Pessoa		56,470	4,175,326	78.93	60,000	0.722
Parana	PR	Curitiba		199,308	11,623,091	43.46	417,000	0.792
Pernambuco	PE	Recife		98,148	9,645,321	103.83	201,000	0.727
Piaui	PI	Teresina		251,578	3,341,352	9.73	26,000	0.697
Rio de Janeiro	RJ	Rio de Janeiro		43,780	16,055,174	387.46	693,000	0.796
Rio Grande do Norte	RN	Natal		52,811	3,619,619	62.74	76,000	0.731
Rio Grande do Sul	RS	Porto Alegre		281,730	10,882,965	36.84	444,000	0.787
Rondonia	RO	Porto Velho		237,591	1,837,905	7.34	19,000	0.725
Roraima	RR	Boa Vista		224,301	708,352	2.54	8000	0.752
Santa Catarina	SC	Florianopolis	Joinville	95,736	7,218,704	69.74	293,000	0.808
Sao Paulo	SP	Sao Paulo		248,223	44,411,238	175.73	1,964,000	0.826
Sergipe	SE	Aracaju		21,915	2,403,563	97.64	38,000	0.702
Tocantins	TO	Palmas		277,721	1,692,452	5.74	21,000	0.743

Other statistics, by: highest point , literacy rate , life expectancy , infant mortality , murder rate .

Approximate correspondence between historical divisions [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

• Brazil socio-geographic division
• List of Brazilian states by Human Development Index
• List of Brazilian states by murder rate
• List of Brazil state name etymologies
• Provinces of Brazil
• Regions of Brazil

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Economic statistical data for Brazil's 26 states and federal district (in English, Portuguese, and Spanish)
• Federative units of Brazil at Curlie
• Wikimedia Atlas of Brazil
• Map of Brazil, showing states and their standard time zones