Largest cities in Brazil by population

The 320 cities the United Nations Demographic Yearbook 2024 lists for Brazil: the capital and every city of 100,000 or more, with the latest figure the country reported. The largest is São Paulo with 11,911,337 people; the capital, Brasília, has 3,009,996.

Who runs cities in Brazil?

Municipalities (5,570): Mayor (prefeito) and council (câmara de vereadores) directly elected for four years; mayors can serve two terms in a row. Primary schools, basic health care, urban planning, local transport, waste; each has its own organic law.

How local power works in Brazil · Level 3: local councils worldwide

Countries define a city in different ways (the city proper, or the wider urban area) and report in different years, so cities in different countries are not always comparable.

More on Brazil: official statistics · government and power · regions

Sources

• United Nations Statistics Division: Demographic Yearbook 2024, Table 8: Population of capital cities and cities of 100 000 or more inhabitants, latest available year, 2005-2024, read 23 October 2026 · saved copy (SHA-256 0c6784df022e…)

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