The Southeast Region of Brazil is composed by the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is the richest region of the country, responsible for aproximately 60% of the Brazilian GDP

General Data

• Area: 927.286 km² (12%)
• Population: 72.300.000 hab (77,96 hab/km², 38%)
• GDP: ~320bi US$ (58,5%)
• HDI: ~0,820
• Climate: Tropical along the coast, humid, hot in the summer and warm in the winter); Tropical in the northwest (warm, relatively dry in the winter and wet in the summer); Semi-arid in the north; Temperate in the south
• Largest Cities: São Paulo (10.405.867); Rio de Janeiro (5.851.914); Belo Horizonte (2.232.747); Guarulhos (1.071.268); Campinas (968.172); Nova Iguaçú (915.366); São Gonçalo (889.828); Duque de Caxias (770.865); São Bernardo do Campo (701.289); Osasco (650.993); Santo André (648.443); São José dos Campos (538.909); Contagem (537.806); Ribeirão Preto (505.053); Uberlândia (500.488); Sorocaba (494.649); Niterói (458.465); Juiz de Fora (456.432); Santos (412.243), Vila Velha (357.952), Bauru (310.000), Vitória (291.941)

Transportation

The Southeast Brazilian region is highly covered by highways - due to the policy in the Brazilian's economy in the 60s (automobilization of the country) - This led to the car's manufacturing to be a major industry not only in the region but in Brazil as well.

Southeast's highways are generally in good or very good conditions - some exceptions are made to the southern parts of the BR-101.

Railways are presente as well (and also, the region is more covered than any other region), but mainly for freight trasport - soil and iron, mainly, from the farms and mines to the seaports.

Also, a very complicated hydrocanal system is present in the Region, even with the presence of ten major dams.

Social Care

São Paulo has the highest HDI rates of the country, and the region has a relatively high HGI rate, in comparision to other Regions to the country. But the high rates are mainly in the small and medium sized cities (up to 250.000 habitants).

Health care and education are of major concern in the larger cities, but in smaller ones, they generally are well-looked by the population.

Larger cities suffer from increase violence rates - mainly São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which suffer the effects of Drug Mafia nowadays. Unemployement rates can be as high of 30%, when we do not consider informal working, or as high as 15%, even with informal work. This lead to misery, worsens crime rates and other social problems like malnutrition and child labour, for example.

See Also

• Brazil Regional Division
• Brazil