Today, March 1st, the IBGE releases the updates of three annual studies in Geosciences: 2020 Digital Municipal Mesh, Municipal Maps of Population Estimates and Territorial Areas of States and Municipalities.

The IBGE carried out a series of updates in the Digital Municipal Mesh, including the political and administrative representation of Brazilian states and municipalities, providing a basis for new Municipal Maps and Territorial Areas. In this data set, all determinations arising from legal decisions, new state laws and technical reports/opinions prepared by the indicated state bodies are applied, affecting the areas and borders considered in the 2020 Population Estimates.

Altogether, Brazil has 5,568 municipalities, plus the district island of Fernando de Noronha and the Federal District, adding up to Brazil's territorial extension of 8,510,345.538 km². In this update, the calculation of the Territorial Area of ​​Brazil in 2020 was increased by 49.624 km² (0.001%) of the value published in 2019 (8,510,295.914 Km²), due to the following factors:

         - Hydrography adjustments in line with the best cartographic inputs available on the international border of the state of Acre with Bolivia and Peru;

         - In the state areas, adjustments were made in line with the best cartographic input on the borders between Goiás and the states of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Tocantins; the state of Maranhão with the states of Piauí and Tocantins; and on the border separating Alagoas and Sergipe (Rio São Francisco);

The IBGE has also updated the Municipal Maps of 265 municipalities which underwent changes of areas and borders between May 2019 and June 2020. The states with the highest number of adjusted municipalities were Mato Grosso (141 municipalities) and Rio Grande do Sul (53 municipalities).

All updates have consequences to the population surveys and studies developed by the IBGE. Although the Digital Municipal Mesh, the Municipal Maps and the respective Territorial Areas are used as a reference for several activities in public, private agencies and in society in general, the Institute is not entitled to define or determine the borders of the territory.