The IBGE discloses today (06/29/2018) the Digital Municipal Mesh of Brazil, which can be accessed here.

The Digital Municipal Mesh of Brazil is a product elaborated by the Coordination of Territorial Structures (CETE) of the Directorate of Geosciences (DGC), and is published annually, containing the political-administrative representation of the states and municipalities used by IBGE for the purpose of statistical data production. The population estimates produced annually by the institute take into account the updated situation of the political-administrative division (DPA), whose dynamics reflect changes in the territorial borders of the municipalities, within the scope of the agreements that the IBGE has with State Bodies in charge of the matter and/or of the Legislative Assemblies.

In 2017, the Digital Municipal Mesh of Brazil was made of 5572 geocodes, comprising:

• 5568 Municipalities
• 1 Federal District (Brasília - DF)
• 1 State District (Fernando de Noronha – PE)
2 Operational State Areas (Lagoa dos Patos and Lagoa Mirim, both belonging to Rio Grande do Sul)

Changes received by the IBGE after April 30 of the current year will be included in the Municipal Mesh in the following year, considering the minimum time necessary for processing this information in the Census Mapping and other IBGE registries. Since the release of the results of the 2010 Population Census, the changes that had an impact on the population estimates were due to the following factors:

1. New legislation changing the descriptors of municipal borders;
2. Cartographic adjustments or technical reports officially sent to the IBGE by state bodies;
3. Installation of new municipalities;
4. Judicial decisions or normative opinion of the Federal Prosecutor's Office of the IBGE.

In the case of normative opinion, unlike the previous ones, it is not the border that changes, but only a given locality that happens to have its population counted for another municipality.

The Municipal Digital Mesh is the IBGE's effort to geometrically represent the Brazilian DPA in view of a scenario that encompasses legal omissions, uncertainties, approximations, litigation and the lack of cartographic inputs in compatible scale and updating. Because of this context, it is recommended that you read the Readme file before any use.

Other DGC related products:

Continuous cartographic base of RJ
Municipal maps for population estimates 2017
Brazilian territorial area
Regional Framework of Brazil