São Paulo
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Where is São Paulo located?
São Paulo is a city and estado (state) in southeastern Brazil. The city is the capital of the state, and it sits on a plateau of the Brazilian Highlands, part of the Great Escarpment, not far from the Atlantic Ocean.
The state borders the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast and the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, and Mato Grosso do Sul. The Tropic of Capricorn passes through the state, marking the boundary between the tropical and temperate areas of South America.
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What is São Paulo known for in Brazil?
S\u00e3o Paulo is known as one of the world's largest, most diversified economic centers, and an international leader in finance, banking, commerce, industry, and global trade. It is the capital of a state with a GDP larger than most countries.
S\u00e3o Paulo is also a prominent cultural and intellectual center. The city is home to leading libraries, publishing houses, and theaters. The S\u00e3o Paulo Art Museum is one of the best in South America. The city has a rich architectural tradition and is advanced in the field of music.
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How large is the population of São Paulo?
The city of São Paulo, the capital of Sã Paulo estado, is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest conurbations in the world. In 2022, the population of the city of São Paulo proper was 12,284,940, and the population of Greater São Paulo was 19,683,975. By the end of the 20th century, the city of São Paulo had a population of more than 10 million, and the metropolitan region had soared to about 19 million inhabitants.
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What are some important industries in São Paulo?
Sāo Paulo is a global economic center, leading Latin America in industry, finance, commerce, and trade. The city's diverse economy includes manufacturing of textiles, vehicles and transportation equipment, computer industries, and food production. Sāo Paulo is also a leader in banking, finance, communications, and transportation. The Port of Santos is the largest coffee-shipping port in the world.
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What cultures and people influence São Paulo's identity?
Sāo Paulo's identity is shaped by a diverse mix of cultures and people. The original settlers were primarily Portuguese, particularly those from southern Portugal. The expansion of coffee cultivation after 1880 led to significant European immigration, mainly Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, and Germans.
Other groups, such as Japanese and Middle Eastern immigrants, arrived in the early 1900s, and Sāo Paulo now has the largest Japanese population outside Japan. Internal migration from northeastern Brazil, including descendants of African slaves, grew the population by the 1930s, and Koreans and Bolivians arrived by 1970. This rich combination of cultures has resulted in a high degree of assimilation across ethnic communities.
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How has São Paulo grown and changed throughout its history?
Founded in 1554 as a small settlement by Jesuit missionaries, S\u00e3o Paulo grew slowly, with only 300 residents by the end of the 16th century. The city served as a base for expeditions into the hinterlands in search of slaves and mineral wealth in the 17th century.
Coffee production in the late 19th century spurred massive immigration and economic activity, transforming S\u00e3o Paulo into a major center and leading to rapid population growth. By the early 20th century, industries expanded, and the population increased from 240,000 in 1900 to 580,000 by 1920.
The city continued to grow throughout the 20th century, becoming a metropolis by 1950. Today, S\u00e3o Paulo is a megametropolis and the foremost industrial center in Latin America.
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São Paulo, city, capital of São Paulo estado (state), southeastern Brazil. It is the foremost industrial centre in Latin America. The city is located on a plateau of the Brazilian Highlands extending inland from the Serra do Mar, which rises as part of the Great Escarpment only a short distance inland from the Atlantic Ocean. The city itself sits in a shallow basin with low mountains to the west. It lies about 220 miles (350 km) southwest of Rio de Janeiro and about 30 miles (50 km) inland from its Atlantic Ocean port of Santos. The city’s name derives from its having been founded by Jesuit missionaries on January 25, 1554, the anniversary of the conversion of St. Paul.
With one of the world’s fastest-growing metropolitan populations, São Paulo is also the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest conurbations in the world. It is a dynamic late bloomer, having been heavily overshadowed by Rio de Janeiro not only during the colonial era but also throughout the 19th century. Only when coffee became Brazil’s vital export crop in the last decades of the 19th century did São Paulo become a major centre of economic activity with concomitant population growth. Migration, both from Europe and internal, led to great expansion and diversification. When São Paulo served as the main focus of Brazil’s industrialization in the early decades of the 20th century, it rapidly closed the gap with Rio de Janeiro, which shortly before the turn of the century had been 10 times as large.
By the 1940s and ’50s, São Paulo was aptly referred to as the locomotive “pulling the rest of Brazil” and has since become the hub of an immense megametropolis. Its vibrant and energetic urban core is characterized by an ever-growing maze of modern steel, concrete, and glass skyscrapers in newer hubs within São Paulo’s business centre, as well as in emergent outlying business districts. The great diversity of these modern buildings—many of which are truly striking—reflects a wide variety of architectural styles and materials. Glass towers of different hues mingle with impressive granite and marble-faced structures next to metal-sheathed ones. The city’s creatively eclectic appearance, comparable to that of any of the world’s great metropolitan centres, exemplifies the advanced state of Brazilian architecture. In stark contrast to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and most other major Brazilian cities, late-blooming São Paulo has few historical buildings and virtually no structures dating back to the colonial era. Indeed, any building erected before 1900 is deemed historical in São Paulo. Exceptions to the lack of antiquity in the midst of 20th- and 21st-century construction are the church and convent of Luz (1579), now housing the Museum of Sacred Art; the Carmo Church (1632); and the São Francisco Church (1676, rebuilt in 1791).
By the end of the 20th century, the city of São Paulo proper had a population of more than 10 million, and the metropolitan region had soared to about 19 million inhabitants. Area city, 576 square miles (1,493 square km); Greater São Paulo, 3,070 square miles (7,951 square km). Pop. (2022) 12,284,940; Greater São Paulo, 19,683,975; (2021 est.) 12,284,940 ; Greater São Paulo, 22,048,504.
Character of the city
São Paulo is notable for its immensity, dynamism, and drive. Sampa, as it is called by its inhabitants, combines the best and worst of modern oversized urban conglomerates. Traditionally, it has been first and foremost a place to work, secondly a place to live, and lastly a city to enjoy. Even with its educational advantages and cultural facilities, São Paulo long upheld its end of the Brazilian aphorism “Earn in São Paulo so you can spend in Rio.” As the 21st century has unfolded, however, São Paulo’s social scene has been dramatically energized. Trendy restaurants and hip clubs have proliferated in the revitalized city centre. Beyond the new youth-oriented emphasis on food and fun, massive murals by accomplished street artists festoon buildings that were denuded of outdoor advertising by city legislation in 2006.
São Paulo’s vastness is unquestionably impressive at first glance; however, its depersonalizing scale of immensity also can prove depressing. Yet many of São Paulo’s neighbourhoods possess humanizing features and individual characteristics belying the surface appearance of a stultifying similarity. For those Paulistanos (as the city’s inhabitants are called) who are involved in São Paulo’s invigorating vitality, it is a city of which to be proud, not one to be defended against criticism based on its disheartening crime and poverty statistics, which, moreover, had undergone significant improvement by the second decade of the 21st century. Nevertheless, because São Paulo is Brazil’s richest city, its poor appear even poorer in comparison with its large middle class and its numerous affluent. It also continues to attract people from the country’s rural regions in a flow that constantly feeds the bottom of the social pyramid as life improves for those already there.
Landscape
City site
The Brazilian Highlands are composed of ancient crystalline rocks, which in the vicinity of São Paulo form a surface of gently rounded hills mantled with a reddish clay soil. Rivers such as the Tietê, on which São Paulo is located, rise near the edge of the Great Escarpment and flow generally westward to the Paraná River. In their course, they cross stratified sandstones and limestones overlaying the crystalline base, as well as sheets of volcanic rock that form the Paraná Plateau. Here, rapids and waterfalls, as well as dams and reservoirs, supply great quantities of hydroelectric power.
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Located at an elevation of 2,690 feet (820 metres) above sea level, the city is surrounded by valleys and foothills, which have been virtually swallowed up by the spread of its industrial suburbs. The higher terrain constitutes the preferred residential areas; the lower parts are on alluvial land along the banks of three rivers—the Tietê, the Pinheiros, and the Tamanduateí—and these are occupied by working-class residences, factories, and commercial enterprises. Among the suburban communities that sprawl from São Paulo are Guarulhos, Osasco, Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul, Mauá, Mogi das Cruzes, and Diadema. The rapidly disappearing open spaces on the perimeter of the city, where clay soils mix with sandy deposits, are used for intensive market gardening. A forest reserve of about 39 square miles (100 square km) is maintained in the nearby Serra da Cantareira, while the beaches of Santos and Guarujá provide pleasant resort areas.