IBGE releases today the Urban-Regional Division of Brazil, which completes the Areas of Influence of Cities Project (REGIC) 2008. This unprecedented study delimited 14 expanded areas of urban connectivity, locating the most influential cities in macro-regional terms. The subdivision of the expanded areas resulted in 161 intermediate areas, whose internal connectivity is based on supply and demand of highly complex goods and services. The 482 immediate areas of urban connectivity reflect the areas where the population lives and commutes in their daily routine.

The complete database provides files including the limits and centers of the areas, as well as tables with the composition of areas by municipality, showing the stages of their development. More information on the Urban-Regional Division of Brazil 2008 is available on https://www.ibge.gov.br/home/geociencias/geografia/default_divisao_urbano_regional.shtm.

The Urban-Regional Division of Brazil provides a vision of the country based on the flows connected through the urban network. Each municipality belongs to a single area, whose limits are not necessarily restricted to the state borders. Another important feature of this division is the location of a city as the center of each area. The study delimited areas of urban connectivity according to three reference scales, whose intervals are based on a networked organization, where the centers of territory management and the flows establish the links and the regional arrangements.

Study identifies three levels of urban connectivity of the territory

The expanded areas of urban connectivity reveal the prevalence of the major cities over the national territory, thus blurring borders. At macro-regional level, the socioeconomic complementarity between them is evidenced by the power of the major regional centers, as it is the case of Fortaleza, Recife and Salvador in the Northeast; Porto Alegre and Curitiba in the South; São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte in the Southeast; Manaus and Porto Velho in the North; and Cuiabá in the Central-West.

The intermediate areas of urban connectivity result from the subdivision of expanded areas. They are distinguished from their urban centers at the level of regional capital A, B and C, and sub-regional center A. The centers of these areas connect with a big number of municipalities, usually providing goods and services of higher complexity, concentrating activities of public and private management and connecting public institutions with private companies.

The immediate areas of urban connectivity were identified based on the subdivision of the intermediate areas. They are usually located around sub-regional centers A and B and zone centers A and B. The connectivity of the immediate areas is based on the demand for lower complex activities and products, as well as on other restricted demands. They reflect the area where the population lives and commutes in their daily routine for supplying and demanding trivial goods and services, like secondary school, acquisition of non-durable consumer goods, legal services, accounting, eye care, orthopedics, and demand for goods like refrigerators, TV sets and cars.