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States of Brazil, matched to countries

Natural Earth’s file divides Brazil into 27 states and districts. Below, each is drawn at true scale and matched to the country closest to it in area and in population.

Brazil has 26 states and the Federal District, which holds the capital, Brasília; all 27 are counted here, and the Federal District is listed as a federal district, not as a state.

Population: the 2022 figures Wikidata holds, for 27 of the 27 states and districts. Every population on these pages carries its year; they are not one count taken on one day.

AmazonasParáMato GrossoMinas GeraisBahiaMato Grosso do SulGoiásMaranhãoTocantinsRio Grande do SulPiauíSão PauloRondôniaRoraimaParanáAcreCearáAmapáPernambucoSanta CatarinaParaíbaRio Grande do NorteEspírito SantoRio de JaneiroAlagoasSergipeFederal District
One equal-area map: darker means larger. Select a state to open its page.

At a glance

  • Amazonas, the largest, is 270× the size of Federal District, the smallest.
  • The five largest, Amazonas, Pará, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Bahia, cover 57% of Brazil.
  • 12 of the 27 are larger than the United Kingdom (244,000 km²).
  • 5 of the 27 are larger than France (548,000 km²).
  • Federal District, the most crowded, has 486 people per km²: 193× Amazonas, the least crowded (2.5).
  • Half of the people counted live in the 5 most populous (São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Paraná), which cover 19% of the area.
  • 12 of the 27 have more people than the median of the 38 European countries listed here (6.6 million).
  • 20 of the 27 are within 10% in area of a European country, among them Espírito Santo and Estonia (1.00×), Mato Grosso do Sul and Germany (1.00×), Rondônia and Romania (1.01×).

Every state matched to a country

Largest first. The matches are the countries closest in area and in population from Natural Earth’s country list; contested places and dependencies are never used as matches. Population is the newest figure Wikidata holds, with its year.

  1. Amazonas1,565,000 km² · 3.9 million (2022)
    Size ofMongolia1.00× · 1,565,000 km²
    People ofGeorgia1.00× · 3.9 million
  2. Pará1,231,000 km² · 8.1 million (2022)
    Size ofSouth Africa1.01× · 1,220,000 km²
    People ofHonduras0.98× · 8.3 million
  3. Mato Grosso903,000 km² · 3.7 million (2022)
    Size ofNigeria1.00× · 907,000 km²
    People ofBosnia and Herzegovina0.96× · 3.8 million
  4. Minas Gerais586,000 km² · 20.5 million (2022)
    Size ofKenya1.00× · 586,000 km²
    People ofKazakhstan1.02× · 20.1 million
  5. Bahia560,000 km² · 14.1 million (2022)
    Size ofUkraine0.98× · 572,000 km²
    People ofBenin1.00× · 14.1 million
  6. Mato Grosso do Sul356,000 km² · 2.8 million (2022)
    Size ofGermany1.00× · 358,000 km²
    People ofAlbania0.98× · 2.8 million
  7. Goiás341,000 km² · 7.1 million (2022)
    Size ofRepublic of the Congo0.99× · 345,000 km²
    People ofLaos1.03× · 6.9 million
  8. Maranhão326,000 km² · 6.8 million (2022)
    Size ofMalaysia0.99× · 328,000 km²
    People ofParaguay0.99× · 6.8 million
  9. Tocantins279,000 km² · 1.5 million (2022)
    Size ofBurkina Faso1.02× · 273,000 km²
    People ofEast Timor1.08× · 1.4 million
  10. Rio Grande do Sul272,000 km² · 10.9 million (2022)
    Size ofBurkina Faso1.00× · 273,000 km²
    People ofCzechia1.00× · 10.9 million
  11. Piauí252,000 km² · 3.3 million (2022)
    Size ofEcuador0.99× · 255,000 km²
    People ofMongolia0.96× · 3.4 million
  12. São Paulo249,000 km² · 44.4 million (2022)
    Size ofGuinea1.02× · 244,000 km²
    People ofAlgeria0.96× · 46.2 million
  13. Rondônia238,000 km² · 1.6 million (2022)
    Size ofGhana1.00× · 239,000 km²
    People ofEast Timor1.13× · 1.4 million
  14. Roraima225,000 km² · 637,000 (2022)
    Size ofLaos0.99× · 228,000 km²
    People ofMontenegro1.03× · 617,000
  15. Paraná199,000 km² · 11.4 million (2022)
    Size ofKyrgyzstan1.00× · 199,000 km²
    People ofTunisia0.99× · 11.6 million
  16. Acre154,000 km² · 830,000 (2022)
    Size ofTunisia0.98× · 157,000 km²
    People ofBhutan1.05× · 787,000
  17. Ceará150,000 km² · 8.8 million (2022)
    Size ofNepal1.02× · 147,000 km²
    People ofPapua New Guinea0.98× · 8.9 million
  18. Amapá139,000 km² · 734,000 (2022)
    Size ofBangladesh1.02× · 137,000 km²
    People ofLuxembourg1.06× · 691,000
  19. Pernambuco97,600 km² · 9.1 million (2022)
    Size ofSouth Korea0.99× · 98,500 km²
    People ofBelarus1.00× · 9.1 million
  20. Santa Catarina95,100 km² · 7.6 million (2022)
    Size ofLiberia1.00× · 95,300 km²
    People ofSierra Leone1.01× · 7.6 million
  21. Paraíba56,500 km² · 4.0 million (2022)
    Size ofTogo0.99× · 56,900 km²
    People ofGeorgia1.01× · 3.9 million
  22. Rio Grande do Norte52,800 km² · 3.3 million (2022)
    Size ofBosnia and Herzegovina1.02× · 51,800 km²
    People ofMongolia0.97× · 3.4 million
  23. Espírito Santo45,800 km² · 3.8 million (2022)
    Size ofEstonia1.00× · 45,800 km²
    People ofBosnia and Herzegovina1.00× · 3.8 million
  24. Rio de Janeiro44,000 km² · 16.1 million (2022)
    Size ofDenmark1.03× · 42,700 km²
    People ofSenegal0.95× · 16.9 million
  25. Alagoas27,600 km² · 3.1 million (2022)
    Size ofSolomon Islands1.02× · 27,200 km²
    People ofArmenia1.07× · 2.9 million
  26. Sergipe21,600 km² · 2.2 million (2022)
    Size ofDjibouti0.99× · 21,800 km²
    People ofSlovenia1.07× · 2.1 million
  27. Federal District5,790 km² · 2.8 million (2022)
    Size ofBrunei1.01× · 5,720 km²
    People ofAlbania1.00× · 2.8 million

The closest matches in size

Espírito Santo vs Estonia1.00× · 45,800 and 45,800 km²
Amazonas vs Mongolia1.00× · 1,565,000 and 1,565,000 km²
Minas Gerais vs Kenya1.00× · 586,000 and 586,000 km²
Paraná vs Kyrgyzstan1.00× · 199,000 and 199,000 km²
Rio Grande do Sul vs Burkina Faso1.00× · 272,000 and 273,000 km²
Santa Catarina vs Liberia1.00× · 95,100 and 95,300 km²

How crowded they are

AmazonasFederal District
People per square kilometre, on a log scale: each step to the right is ten times as crowded. Dot area is population. Amazonas (left) and Federal District (right) are 193× apart. The names under the axis are countries at about that density, for scale.

What the reorganisations did to the numbers

Brazil has reorganised its units. Undoing each change on today’s outlines shows what it did to the size and rank of the units. The years are from this site’s configuration; the numbers are added up from the outlines and Wikidata’s figures.

  1. 1977
    ÷

    Until 1977, Mato Grosso covered what is now Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.

    1,259,000 km² added together, about the same size as Mali. As one unit: 2nd of 26 by area, 13th by people with 6.4 million (2022), the same as Bulgaria. As two: Mato Grosso 3rd and Mato Grosso do Sul 6th of 27.

  2. 1988
    ÷

    Until 1988, Goiás covered what is now Goiás and Tocantins.

    620,000 km² added together, about the same size as the Central African Republic. As one unit: 4th of 26 by area, 9th by people with 8.6 million (2022), 1.03× as many as Honduras. As two: Goiás 7th and Tocantins 9th of 27.

Beside the regions of other countries

Every state also has a closest match, by area and by people, among the 368 regions of the other 12 countries. All the matches, in both directions, are on one page.

Roraima vs Minnesota1.00× · 225,000 and 225,000 km²
Piauí vs Oregon1.00× · 252,000 and 252,000 km²
Ceará vs Illinois1.00× · 150,000 and 150,000 km²
Sources and method
Outlines
Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 1 - States, Provinces, public domain. The 27 listed are all of the features Natural Earth has for Brazil.
Boundary
De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth.
Area
Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The 27 areas add up to 8,473,000 km², within 0.1% of the country’s measured area.
Official figures
Area, population and capital from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-12. Population is the 2022 figure where Wikidata has it, otherwise its newest; the year is shown.
Data built
2026-11-12

Full method

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