Brazil States 2025

Brazil has 26 states as well as the Federal District. The 26 states are distributed across the five regions in the country. These five regions are the South region, Southeast region, North region, Northeast region, and Central-west region. Here’s the distribution of states per region.

South Region

Brazil’s South Region has three states with a total population of over 30 million people. Parana (PR) is home to over 11.5 million people. Its capital is Curitiba. Rio Grande do Sul (RS) is the second-most populous state in the South Region with a population of 11.4 million. Its capital is Porto Alegre. Finally, the state in the South Region is Santa Catarina, with a population of over 7.25 million. Florianópolis is the capital of Santa Catarina.

Southeast Region

This region has four states. Rio de Janeiro (RJ), the third most populous state in Brazil, has a population of 17.4 million. Rio de Janeiro’s capital is Rio de Janeiro, the second-most populous city in Brazil. Minas Gerais (MG) is Brazil’s second-most populous state, with 21.3 million people. Its capital is Belo Horizonte. Espírito Santo’s (ES) capital is Vitória and has a population of over 4 million. São Paulo (SP) is the most populous state in Brazil, with 46.3 million people. Its capital, São Paulo, is Brazil’s largest city with 12 million people in its urban center and over 22 million in its greater metropolitan area.

North Region

Seven states are located in the North region. The largest is Pará (PA), with a population of 8.7 million. Amazonas (AM) is the second most populous city with over 4.2 million people. Rondônia (RO) is the third most populous city, home to almost 1.8 million people. The other four states in this region are Acre (AC), Roraima (RR), Tocantins (TO), and Amapá (AP).

Northeast Region

The Northeast region is home to nine states, each with significantly large populations of several million. The largest state in this region is Bahia, home to 14.9 million people. The second largest is Pernambuco (PE), with a population of 9.6 million, followed by Ceará (CE) with 9.2 million people. Maranhão (MA)is the next largest state with a population of 7.1 million. The other states in this region are Rio Grande de Norte (RN), Sergipe (SE), Alagoas (AL), Piauí (PI), and Paraíba (PB).

Central-west Region

These four states are located in the Central-west region. Distrito Federal (the Federal district) is home to Brazil’s capital Brasília and over 3 million people. Goiás (GO) is the largest state in the region, with a population of over 7.1 million people. Mato Grosso (MT) and Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) are the other two states in this region.

The five richest states are Sao Paulo, Distrito Federal, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Espírito Santo. Besides Distrito Federal, Brazil’s capital, the other four wealthiest states are in the Southeast region. On the other hand, Piauí, Maranhão, Alagoas, Paraíba, and Ceará are among the poorest states in Brazil. The five biggest states by area are Amazonas (1,570,745.7 km²), Para (1,247,689.5 km²), Mato Grosso (903,357.9 km²), Minas Gerais (586,528.3 km²), and Bahia (564,692.7km²). The five smallest states by area are Distrito Federal (5,822.1 km²), Sergipe (21,910.3 km²), Alagoas (27,767.7km²), Rio de Janeiro (43,696.1 km²), Espírito Santo (46,077.5km²).