Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - 2021 Political Map – 1:5 000 000

The Political Map of Brazil in the 1:5,000,000 scale, in which 1 cm equals to 50 km in the terrain, is a wall cartographic representation of the entire Brazilian territory, showing the political-administrative organization of Brazil through its 26 states and the Federal District, as well as the capital of the municipalities selected to be represented in that scale, besides other cartographic information.

Produced from the continuous cartographic base of Brazil in the 1:250,000 scale (1 cm = 2.5 km), the Political Map of Brazil in the 1:5,000,000 scale provides an overview of the territory, allowing to pinpoint the Federation Units and their capitals, as well as other geographic elements that complement and characterize it. Public institutions, education professionals, students and the society in general are potential users of this product.

The Map also brings a table listing the Federation Units, their respective capitals, resident population, territorial area, total number of municipalities and population density, as well as it groups the FUs according to the Brazilian Major Regions.

The other cartographic information portrayed in the Map corresponds to the following categories:
Hydrography - water bodies and islands;
Transportation system  - highways, railways, ports and airports;
Localities - classified according to the population. In regions where it is not possible to represent all the localities in that scale, those of higher population are portrayed;
Limits - international (informative character), state and the Federal District, and maritime limits;
Energy and communications -  power plants;
Reference points: extreme points;
Relief - mountains and peaks;
Toponymy - geographic names of features.

The criteria adopted for toponymy of rivers outside Brazil and capitals of South American countries follow the cartographic publication recommended by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names - UNGEGN.

Concerning the capitals of the South American countries, the spelling of the South American countries was respected as endonyms(1), also according to the International Map to the Millionth Scale (CIM). Exonyms(2) were assumed to be traditional in our culture. The following simplified definitions were considered:

endonyms - Foreign geographical names that, once written in international publications, follow the official language of the country of origin.

exonyms - Foreign geographical names written differently from the official language of the country of origin.