IBGE releases today (27/06/2016) the 2016 Digital National Atlas of Brazil. The publication presents, in an interactive environment, information contained in the Milton Santos National Atlas of Brazil, published in 2010, now enriched with 170 maps bringing updated demographic, economic and social information, and also a special section about the Indian population in the country. The book also includes an unprecedented mapping of the areas occupied by this population inside and outside Indian territory, according to data from the 2010 Population Census.

This Atlas shows the deep transformations of Brazilian geography throughout the years, as it follows tha changes observed in the occupation of the national territory with reference to four major topics: Brazil in the World; Territory and the Environment; Society and Economy; Geographic Networks.

Besides written texts, the Atlas brings maps, tables and graphs, resources which make it possible to combine statistical data and geographic features. The flexible and comprehensive amount of information generated as a result can promote better understanding of the diversity of our country, in terms of demography, economy, environment and culture.

This release brings into effect IBGE's policy on the dissemination of the National Digital Atlas of Brazil.

Click here to access the 2016 Digital National Atlas of Brazil.

Application allows navigation in an interactive environment

The 2016 Digital National Atlas of Brazil Atlas is an application for geographic analysis, directed to users who wish to have access only to the assortment of maps, but also to those who have more advanced knowledge and are in search of geographic information on line.

The user can have access to all the pages of the publication, download and access geographic and statistical data and metadata. The application also permits the analysis of 780 maps in an interactive environment, which enables map navigation, change of the viewing scale, the access and export of tables and graph files, map customization by means of the overlapping of topics from various sources, generatinon of images for later analysis and creation of a customized study area.

Four major topics lie in the basis of the 2016 Digital National Atlas

The 2016 Digital National Atlas is based on four major topics: Brazil in the World; Territory and Environment; Society and Economy; and Geographic Networks.

The theme 'Brazil and the World' deals with matters such as social inequality, access to information, geographic areas and energy sources.

The relationship between the Territory and the environment focuses on the divisions of the Brazilian territory and brings maps on the relief, soil, climate, water resources, vegetation, endangered fauna, besides information on environmental risks.

The topic “Society and Economy” deals with the geographic dynamics, urbanization, social inequality, health, education, sanitation, citizenship and the economic space.

The theme Geographic Networks considers the systems and networks - geodetic, cartographic, road, air communication and energy ones - as parts of territory logistics and, therefore, of the geographic location of economic activities in Brazil. The geographic networks provide basic conditions for the distribution of the production, for the movement of people, and, nowadays, for sustainable development, since they support a major part of the occupation and use of natural resources, continuously restructuring the national territory.

Special Section brings unprecedented mapping of the Indian population

The improvement of the 2010 Population Census, with regard to censos mapping, allowed the spatialization of the Indian population at different geographic scales. Sociaodemographic characteristics inside and outside the Indian territory were analyzed, in an attempt to give more visibiliy to this population and map out the desired information.

The 2010 Census informed that 517.4 thousand Indians (57.7% of the total population) lived in Indian land officially acknowledged at the time of the survey. The North (73.5%) and Central West Region (72.5%) had the biggest percentages. Among the states, Roraima and Rio de Janeiro recorded the biggest and the smallest percentages, respectively, 83.2% and 2.8%.

75.0% of the Indians were able to inform to which ethnicity they belong to

In Brazil, 75.0% of the self-declared Indians were able to inform to which Indian ethnicity they belonged to. The most representative Indian ethnicities, by Federation Unit, presented characteristics which indicated the existence of patterns of spatial distribution, for example, the Xavantes, one of the most numerous peoples in the states of the Central West Region, and the Guarani Kaiowá, of the entire South region and part of the Southeast and Central West.

More than 30% of the Indians were able to speak their native language 

The 2010 Population Census listed 274 Indian languages. All over the country, 37.4% of the Indians aged 5 and over were able to speak one native language. Inside the Indian territory this percentage was 57.3%, whereas, outside of it and in urban areas, 9.7% still used to speak native languages and, in rural areas, 24.6%.

Indian languages were mostly spoken in the North, South and also in the Central West, which recorded the highest percentage: 72.4%. Guarani was a relevant language among those spoken in the Southeast, South and Central West, the same occurring in relation to the Nhandeva and the Mbya in the Southeast and South.