Northeast Region, Brazil

The **Northeast Region of Brazil** () is one of the five geographical regions of Brazil defined by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in 1969. It is the third largest region, corresponding to 18% of the national territory, and the second in population.

## Geography

The Northeast Region has an area of . It is the region of the country with the longest coastline.

The climate in the region is very hot all the year long; tropical near the coast and semi-arid in the interior; semi-equatorial in the far west of the region. The vegetation mainly desert-like, with tropical forests along the coast and in the west and savanna-like vegetation, known as the **Cerrado**. in the southwest.

The Northeast Region is between 01° 02' 30" of latitude north and 18° 20' 07" of latitude south and between 34° 47' 30" and 48° 45' 24" of longitude west. It borders to the north and east with the Atlantic Ocean; to the south with the Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo states; and to west with the Pará, Tocantins and Goiás states.

The main rivers in the region are the São Francisco and the Parnaíba rivers; they have many tributaries.

### Mountains

The highest point in the Northeast Region is Pico do Barbado () at . Pico do Barbado is the highest summit of the larger _Serra do Barbado_, in the _Chapada Diamantina_, in Bahia.

The highest point of the different states of the North Region are:
|Department|Mountain|Elevation|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Alagoas|Pico 844 (Serra Santa Cruz)||
|Bahia|Pico do Barbado (Serra do Barbado)||
|Ceará|Pico Serra Branca||
|Maranhão|Pico 804 (Chapada das Mangabeiras)||
|Paraíba|Pico do Jabre||
|Pernambuco|Pico 1195 (Serra da Boa Vista)||
|Piauí|Pico 865 (Serra Grande)||
|Rio Grande do Norte|Pico 868 (Serra do Coqueiro)||
|Sergipe|Pico 742 (Serra Negra)||

## States

This region is formed of nine states: Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe.

|Code|State|Capital|Municipalities|Population <small>(2016)</small> !! width=100px | Area <small>(km<sup>2</sup>)</small> !! Density <small>(inh./km<sup>2</sup>)</small>|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Alagoas|Maceió|102|3,358,963|27,848.16||
||Bahia|Salvador|63|15,276,566|564,732.64||
||Ceará|Fortaleza|184|8,963,663|148,887.63||
||Maranhão|São Luís|217|6,954,036|331,936.96||
||Paraíba|João Pessoa|223|3,999,415|56,468.43||
||Pernambuco|Recife|185|9,410,336|98,076.00||
||Piauí|Teresina|224|3,212,180|251,611.93||
||Rio Grande do Norte|Natal|167|3,474,998|52,811.11||
||Sergipe|Aracaju|75|2,265,779|21,918.45||
|**Total**|1,440|56,915,936|1,554,291.31||||

## Population

, the Northeast region had a population of 56,915,936, for a population density of  inhabitants/km<sup>2</sup>.

The most important municipalities of the North Region are:

|Rank|Municipality|State|Population|Rank|City|State|Population|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|**Salvador**|Bahia|2,938,092|11|**Feira de Santana**|Bahia|622,639|
|2|**Fortaleza**|Ceará|2,609,716|12|**Campina Grande**|Paraíba|407,754|
|3|**Recife**|Pernambuco|1,625,583|13|**Olinda**|Pernambuco|390,144|
|4|**São Luís**|Maranhão|1,082,935|14|**Caucaia**|Ceará|358,164|
|5|**Maceió**|Alagoas|1,021,709|15|**Caruaru**|Pernambuco|351,686|
|6|**Natal**|Rio Grande do Norte|877,662|16|**Vitória da Conquista**|Bahia|346,069|
|7|**Teresina**|Piauí|847,430|17|**Petrolina**|Pernambuco|337,683|
|8|**João Pessoa**|Paraíba|801,718|18|**Paulista**|Pernambuco|325,590|
|9|**Jaboatão dos Guararapes**|Pernambuco|691,125|19|**Camaçari**|Bahia|292,074|
|10|**Aracaju**|Sergipe|641,523|20|**Mossoró**|Rio Grande do Norte|291,937|

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Northeast Region
- **native name**: Região Nordeste
- **native name lang**: pt
- **settlement type**: Regions of Brazil, Region
- **image map**: Northeast Region in Brazil.svg
- **image caption**: Aerial view of Recife, State of Pernambuco, Pernambuco
- **subdivision type**: List of sovereign states, Country
- **subdivision name**: Brazil
- **parts type**: States of Brazil, States
- **parts style**: list
- **seat type**: Largest cities
- **seat**:
Salvador, Bahia, Salvador <small> (by city proper) </small>Recife <small> (by metro pop.) </small>
Fortaleza <small> (by pop. density) </small>
- **unit pref**: Metric
- **area total km2**: 1558196
- **area rank**: Regions of Brazil#Area, 3rd
- **population total**: 57,374,243
- **population rank**: Regions of Brazil#Population, 2nd
- **population urban**: 71%
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population density rank**: Regions of Brazil#Population density, 3rd
- **demographics type1**: Gross domestic product, GDP
- **demographics1 title1**: Year
- **demographics1 info1**: 2014 estimate
- **demographics1 title2**: Total
- **demographics1 info2**: R$805,099,000,000
(Regions of Brazil#GDP, 3rd)
- **demographics1 title3**: Per capita
- **demographics1 info3**: R$14,329.13
(Regions of Brazil#GDP per capita, 5th)
- **demographics type2**: Human Development Index, HDI
- **demographics2 title1**: Year
- **demographics2 info1**: 2014
- **demographics2 title2**: Category
- **demographics2 info2**: 0.710 – <span style="color:green">high</span> (Regions of Brazil#Human Development Index, 5th)
- **demographics2 info3**: 69 years (Regions of Brazil#Life expectancy, 5th)
- **demographics2 info4**: 33.2 per 1,000 (Regions of Brazil#Infant mortality, 1st)
- **demographics2 title5**: Literacy
- **demographics2 info5**: 85,2% (Regions of Brazil#Literacy rate, 5th)
- **timezone1**: Time in Brazil, FNT
- **utc offset1**: −02:00
- **timezone2**: Time in Brazil, BRT
- **utc offset2**: −03:00