Skip to content
Essencial

No. 003 Territorial divisions Brazil, state by state 3/27

Minas Gerais

Territorial divisions and highways

Record, downloads and citation
Fig. 003 Minas Gerais state (MG) EPSG:4674 Source: IBGE, MapBiomas, Natural Earth

Minas Gerais has 853 municipalities across 587,000 km², 6.9 per cent of Brazil. IBGE groups them into 70 immediate regions, drawn around the towns that supply jobs, trade and services to their surroundings, and into 13 intermediate regions that tie those networks together. Juiz de Fora is the intermediate region with the most municipalities (146); Uberlândia, the one with the fewest (24). The largest municipality is João Pinheiro (10,727 km²); the smallest, Santa Cruz de Minas (3.6 km²). Part of the series “Brazil, state by state”: a clean base, with official boundaries and the road network, to start a map without losing the first afternoon gathering files.

Technical record · downloads · citation

At a glance

Municipalities per intermediate region (municipalities)
  • Juiz de Fora 146
  • Montes Claros 86
  • Teófilo Otoni 86
  • Varginha 82
  • Pouso Alegre 80
  • Belo Horizonte 74
  • Divinópolis 61
  • Governador Valadares 58
  • Barbacena 49
  • Ipatinga 44
  • Patos de Minas 34
  • Uberaba 29
  • Uberlândia 24
Area

586,514 km²

Largest municipality: João Pinheiro (10,727 km²); smallest: Santa Cruz de Minas (3.6 km²)

Paved highways

27,450 km

14,980 km federal and 20,772 km state highways, paved or not

Layers

  • municipios polygon 853 municipalities, with IBGE code, regions, urban concentration and area (km²)
  • regioes_intermediarias polygon 13 intermediate geographic regions
  • regioes_imediatas polygon 70 immediate geographic regions
  • limite_estadual polygon Boundary of the federative unit
  • rodovias line Federal and state highways: route number, surface, physical status, carriageways
  • capital point Indicative point for the capital (not the exact seat)

Metadata

Extent
Minas Gerais state (MG)
CRS / Projection
SIRGAS 2000 (EPSG:4674)
EPSG:4674
Software
Python · GeoPandas · GDAL · QGIS · Node.js · d3-geo
Method
IBGE Municipal Mesh boundaries, dissolved into immediate and intermediate regions and the unit boundary; highways clipped to the unit.
Version
v1.0.0
Licence
CC BY 4.0

Downloads

Figure to reuse

The map without a frame, with legend, scale, reference system and credit written on it: ready for papers, lectures and slides. In two versions: with the basemap (neighbours and sea) or only the mapped area, on white.

Point a camera at it to open this page.

How to cite

Cerejo, L. N. (2026). Minas Gerais: divisão territorial e rodovias [Minas Gerais: Territorial divisions and highways] (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23453098

How to read this plate area, projection, scale, legend and source
1 Area
Minas Gerais state (MG) The area the plate covers. Outside it, neighbours and sea are drawn in grey, just for orientation.
2 Coordinates and projection
SIRGAS 2000 (EPSG:4674) The layers are in SIRGAS 2000; the drawing’s projection is written in the colophon at the foot of the panel.
3 Scale
Graphic scale bar in the panel The scale bar is true on the central meridian; away from it, measured distances vary a little.
4 Legend and layers
6 layers in the GeoPackage · polygon, line, point Read the legend before the map: it tells you whether a colour is a rate or a class, and whether a circle is a total.
5 Sources
IBGE (2025); IBGE (2017); MapBiomas; Natural Earth Every figure comes from a public source, with its year. The data sheet gives each one’s address.

Download

Layers, table and figures, under CC BY 4.0. Cite with the DOI.

Full record and citation

Method notes · No. 003

Minas Gerais — territorial divisions and highways

Português · English

Plate No. 003 of the series Brazil, state by state: a cartographic base for each of the 27 federative units, with the same files, the same layers and the same design, ready to download and get to work.

What the files contain

Layer (GPKG)GeometryContents
municipiospolygon853 municipalities: CD_MUN, NM_MUN, immediate and intermediate regions, urban concentration, area_km2, capital
regioes_intermediariaspolygon13 regions, with their number of municipalities
regioes_imediataspolygon70 regions, with their number of municipalities
limite_estadualpolygonoutline of the unit
rodoviaslinefederal and state highways: sigla, revestimento, situacao_fisica, n_pistas, pavimentada
capitalpointindicative point inside the municipality (not the seat)

The GPKG is zipped and attached to the repository’s estados-2025 release, together with those of the other 26 units.

The GPKG carries its own QGIS styles, saved as each layer’s default style: drag the file into QGIS and the municipalities appear in the colours of their intermediate regions, boundaries and highways with the plate’s strokes, and names with a halo. Highway sections without a confirmed physical status sit in a legend rule that is switched off, as on the plate; tick it to see them. Other GIS software opens the layers as usual, without the style. To match the plate, stack them from top to bottom: capital, rodovias, limite_estadual, regioes_intermediarias, regioes_imediatas and municipios.

The CSV holds the municipal table in UTF-8, ready to join with Census data or any dataset keyed on the seven-digit IBGE code.

Method

  1. IBGE Municipal Mesh 2025, with geometry unchanged in the downloadable files.
  2. Immediate and intermediate regions and the boundary are dissolved from the municipalities, so their edges match exactly.
  3. Federal and state highways from MapBiomas’ infrastructure base, clipped to the boundary. The plate shows built sections only.
  4. Areas in km² as computed by IBGE; the total matches an Albers calculation (586,514.0 km²).
  5. On the plate, geometries are simplified as a coverage (≈ 400 m), so the unit, its neighbours and the coastline share the same edges.

Limitations

  • The rodovias layer has an incomplete n_pistas field; do not use it to measure dual-carriageway length.
  • The capital point is indicative (an interior point of the municipal polygon).

View this map’s folder on GitHub

Technical record

Technical record · No. 003

Minas Gerais

At a glance

Municipalities per intermediate region (municipalities)
  • Juiz de Fora 146
  • Montes Claros 86
  • Teófilo Otoni 86
  • Varginha 82
  • Pouso Alegre 80
  • Belo Horizonte 74
  • Divinópolis 61
  • Governador Valadares 58
  • Barbacena 49
  • Ipatinga 44
  • Patos de Minas 34
  • Uberaba 29
  • Uberlândia 24
Area

586,514 km²

Largest municipality: João Pinheiro (10,727 km²); smallest: Santa Cruz de Minas (3.6 km²)

Paved highways

27,450 km

14,980 km federal and 20,772 km state highways, paved or not

Layers

  • municipios polygon 853 municipalities, with IBGE code, regions, urban concentration and area (km²)
  • regioes_intermediarias polygon 13 intermediate geographic regions
  • regioes_imediatas polygon 70 immediate geographic regions
  • limite_estadual polygon Boundary of the federative unit
  • rodovias line Federal and state highways: route number, surface, physical status, carriageways
  • capital point Indicative point for the capital (not the exact seat)

Metadata

Extent
Minas Gerais state (MG)
CRS / Projection
SIRGAS 2000 (EPSG:4674)
EPSG:4674
Software
Python · GeoPandas · GDAL · QGIS · Node.js · d3-geo
Method
IBGE Municipal Mesh boundaries, dissolved into immediate and intermediate regions and the unit boundary; highways clipped to the unit.
Version
v1.0.0
Licence
CC BY 4.0

Downloads

Figure to reuse

The map without a frame, with legend, scale, reference system and credit written on it: ready for papers, lectures and slides. In two versions: with the basemap (neighbours and sea) or only the mapped area, on white.

Point a camera at it to open this page.

How to cite

Cerejo, L. N. (2026). Minas Gerais: divisão territorial e rodovias [Minas Gerais: Territorial divisions and highways] (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23453098

100%