In 2013, 166 municipal and district borders were changed in Brazil. From the 166 changes, 143 were in Bahia, eight in Maranhão, six in Alagoas, four in Paraná, two in Pernambuco, one in Espirito Santo, one in São Paulo and one in Paraíba. Each territorial change involved at least two municipalities. These changes were part of the update of the Municipal Maps for Statistical Purposes (MMEs), used in the composition of the Population Estimates. The list of changed municipalities can be found on link: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/mapas_estatisticos/censo_2010/2013

The annual estimates of the population living in the municipalities take into account the current status of the political-administrative division in Brazil. The latter reflects changes in the municipal and district borders due to: new legislation changing the descriptors of municipal borders or of fractions of district areas between municipalities; court decisions (injunctions and warrants); cartographic changes or adjustments, like those resulting from the innovation in geo-technologies applied to the cartographic inputs, thus improving the identification and representation of the municipal and district polygons.

IBGE holds covenants and technical cooperation agreements with state agencies in order to systematically follow up these changes, thus ensuring the correct application of the respective legislation to the municipal borders. The state agencies and chambers forwarded the changes in the Brazilian territorial framework to IBGE between May 2012 and April 2013, in order to be incorporated into the methodology of the 2013 Population Estimates.