Today (30) the IBGE released the updated versions of five annual Geosciences studies: Digital Municipal Mesh, Update of Municipal Maps, Territorial Areas of States and Municipalities, Brazilian Territorial Division and Municipal Toponymic Changes.

The Digital Municipal Mesh is a set of digital files representing the borders of all Brazilian municipalities and states. This study supports the Municipal Maps and the calculation of new Territorial Area values.

The updated calculation of the Territorial Area for 2025 resulted in a total territorial extension of Brazil of 8,509,360.850 km². Area values ​​are also available for Municipalities, States, Intermediate Regions, Immediate Regions and Major Regions. All values ​​are calculated based on the Digital Municipal Mesh.

As part of its institutional mission, the IBGE registers events occurring in the Brazilian Territorial Division in order to update knowledge of the country's territory and structure the operational stages of data collection, processing, analysis, and geographical and statistical dissemination, associated with household surveys, annual population estimates, censuses, and other geoscientific studies.

In this publication, the IBGE provides maps of 784 municipalities that had updates to their borders between May 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025. The states with the highest number of revisions were Paraná (399 municipalities), São Paulo (173), Amazonas (62), and Piauí (53). The quantities per state are described in the table below:

“The updates occur based on the publication of new legislation, judicial decisions, cartographic updates with the availability of new cartographic inputs, and technical reports/opinions prepared by the respective state agencies responsible for the political-administrative division of each state, forwarded to the IBGE,” explains Roberto Tavares, coordinator of Territorial Structures at the IBGE.

According to Diogo José Nunes da Silva, manager of Data and Service Infrastructure, these maps are of enormous importance to municipalities, public and private bodies, and society in general, who then have access to an integrated view of cartographic inputs with greater detail and precision.

According to José Henrique da Silva, manager of the Brazilian Territorial Division: “The year 2025 was marked by a large number of revisions to municipal borders in the states of Amazonas and Paraná, where practically all boundaries underwent updating, either due to changes in the recognition of the border by the respective State Agencies or due to cartographic updates based on the use of more precise cartographic inputs. Added to this is the continuation of the work carried out by the IBGE State Superintendencies together with the State Governments so that, each year, the consolidated information contributes to a better detailed understanding of the Brazilian territory.”

By carrying out this annual update of the monitoring of changes caused by the occupational dynamics of the territory, the IBGE seeks to maintain Technical Cooperation Agreements with States and Legislative Assemblies, whose objective is to consolidate the political-administrative division of municipalities, and to receive the most precise outlines of territorial boundaries in light of advances in geotechnologies, which improve the identification, representation, and measurement of the limits of the national territory.

The complete documentation on the technical, historical, and legal characteristics regarding the use of the Digital Municipal Mesh and the values ​​of the Territorial Areas is described in the document “2025 Digital Municipal Mesh and Territorial Areas: Technical and Legal Information for the Use of Published Data”, available in the IBGE Library.

Update on the list of municipal subdivisions in the country

In the latest survey, relative to 2025, the Brazilian Territorial Division shows 5,569 municipalities, with no changes compared to 2024. Added to these municipalities are one Federal District (Brasília) and one State District in Pernambuco (Fernando de Noronha).

Regarding the districts, the list shows a total of 10,751 districts. Regarding the 2024 listing, the current survey identified the addition of 12 new municipal districts, with one in Rondônia, one in Pará, one in Pernambuco, one in Bahia, six in Minas Gerais, one in Paraná, and one in Rio Grande do Sul. Additionally, there was a decrease, due to the extinction of one district in Rio Grande do Sul.

The number of sub-districts increased by one (1) new sub-district compared to the 2024 publication, totaling 646 sub-districts. This sub-district is located in the Municipality of Belo Horizonte – MG.

New Districts compared to the 2024 publication:

Update of Municipal Names in 2025

Also on Monday (30), the IBGE released the product Municipal Toponymic Changes.

Changes to the name or spelling of 3 municipalities were recorded. The municipality of São Luiz (RR) became as São Luiz do Anauá. In the State of Rio Grande do Norte, two municipalities underwent spelling changes: Açu became Assú and Arês became Arez.

Toponymic changes (spelling) occur due to the publication of a new State law or due to document revision that leads to the correction of the record in the IBGE Systems. However, any and all adjustments must be approved by the respective State before being implemented by the IBGE in its databases.

Place names reflect and perpetuate a bit of local history and culture, referring to a relevant event or person during the occupation process of the municipal territory, or portraying the feeling of belonging and identity with the territory. The new names will be included in all geographic and statistical documents produced by the IBGE, respecting the publication date of new products.