The Regional Division of Brazil into Immediate and Intermediate Geographic Areas 2017 presents a new regional scenario associated with social, political and economic processes taking place in the national territory since the 1990’s. Its objective is to update the connections between cities, in terms of circulation of persons, services and information, for example, thus contributing to the planning and management of public policies at federal and state level, and also creating subdivisions for the release of statistical and geoscientific data in the next ten years.

The new subdivision of Geographic Areas encompasses the changes occurred in Brazil throughout the last three decades, considering two scales: Intermediate Geographic Areas and Immediate Geographic Areas, which were previously known as Geographic Mesoregions and Microregions, respectively. This new approach to the territory does not alter or replace the political-administrative subdivision of the Brazilian territory into municipalities, Federation Units and Major Regions; that is an alternative for the construction of geographic knowledge, considering the processes of change observed recently and operated by means of elements such as the urban network and management flows, among others, which can identify regions at proper scales.

The urban network is the main referential element in Immediate Geographic Areas. These are organized around nearby urban centers that can be accessed for the satisfaction of immediate needs of populations, such as: purchase of consumer goods, job search, health and education services and rendering of public services, such as customer service units at the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), of the Ministry of Labor and of legal activities, among others.

The Intermediate Geographic Areas correspond to an intermediate category between the Federation Units and the Immediate Geographic Areas. They connect Immediate Geographic Areas to more complex urban functions, such as specialized medical services or major universities.

The Regional Division of Brazil into Immediate and Intermediate Geographic Areas 2017 attempts to bring new actors into the process of boundary delimitation for Geographic Areas, including local knowledge of different types of territory organization in Brazil. In order to reach this objective, it counted on the cooperation of planning institutions by means of a partnership mediated by the National Association of Planning, Survey and Statistics Institutions (Anipes), and with the work of IBGE units all over the national territory.

The Regional Division of Brazil into Immediate and Intermediate Geographic Areas 2017 is available here.