Map of Alagoas
Alagoas is a first-level division of Brazil. Its largest mapped city is Maceió, with about 1.19 million people in the metropolitan area. The interactive map below is centred on Alagoas, and the tables list its 5 mapped cities along with the ports nearest to them.
- Cities Mapped
- 5
- Largest City
- Maceió
- Country
- Brazil
Interactive Map of Alagoas
About Alagoas
Alagoas (English: , AL-ə-GOH-əs ; Brazilian Portuguese: [alaˈɡoɐs] ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders Pernambuco to the north, Sergipe to the south, Bahia to the southwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Its capital city is Maceió. It is made up of 102 municipalities and its most populous cities are Maceió, Arapiraca, Palmeira dos Índios, Rio Largo, Penedo, União dos Palmares, São Miguel dos Campos, Santana do Ipanema, Delmiro Gouveia, Coruripe, and Campo Alegre.
It is the second smallest Brazilian state in area (larger only than Sergipe) and it is 16th in population. It has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.8% of the Brazilian GDP. Alagoas is one of the largest producers of sugarcane, coconuts, and natural gas in the country, and has ongoing oil exploration mostly consisting of onshore deposits.
Initially, the territory of Alagoas constituted the southern part of the Captaincy of Pernambuco and only gained its autonomy in 1817. Its occupation pushed the expansion of the captaincy's sugarcane farming, which required new areas of cultivation, southward. Thus arose Porto Calvo, Alagoas (now Marechal Deodoro) and Penedo, nuclei which guided the colonization, economic, and social life of the region for a long time. The Dutch invasion in Pernambuco was extended to Alagoas in 1631. The invaders were expelled in 1645, after intense fighting in Porto Calvo, leaving the economy in ruins. The escape of African slaves during the Dutch invasion created a serious labour shortage problem on the sugarcane plantations. Grouped in villages called quilombos, the Africans were only completely dominated at the end of the 17th century with the destruction of the most important quilombo, Palmares.
During the empire, the separatist and republican Confederation of the Equator received the support of noteworthy figures from Alagoas.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Alagoas (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Alagoas in Depth
History
During the first three centuries of its history, Alagoas was part of the captaincy of Pernambuco, only becoming an independent captaincy in 1817. As a reprisal against the Pernambuco Revolution, the King John VI of Portugal ordered a vast portion of the territory of Pernambuco to be taken from it, most including its southern portion, one part was given to the captaincy of Bahia, the other portion was made independent, creating Alagoas as a new Brazilian captaincy.
Initially, in the first years of the 16th century, Alagoas settlement went on slowly, however helped by Africans turned into slaves whose work urged the local economy. In the period of the 16th and 17th centuries, French pirates invaded its territory attracted by the commerce of brazilwood.
Geography
The state's name originates with the lakes along its coast near the city of Maceió. The coast is bordered by fringing reefs and many fine beaches. Behind the beaches, sometimes only hundreds of meters and defined by steep scarps, lies a stretch of green coastal hills having enough rainfall for considerable agriculture and scarce remnants of the Atlantic Forest that now is largely limited to steep hill tops or steep valley sides and bottoms. This is the area long dominated by sugar cane.
Still farther inland lies the Sertão of the Northeast region of the nation. The Sertão is a high dry region dominated by scrub that is often thorn-filled and sometimes toxic, the caatinga. This area and its people are famed in legend and song.
Economy
Alagoas is one of the poorest states of Brazil. It has the second worst HDI in the country, ahead only of the state of Maranhão, though its indicators have improved in recent years. The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 55.8%, followed by the industrial sector at 36.9%. Agriculture represents 7.3% of the state's GDP (2004). Alagoas exports consist of: sugar 58.8%, alcohol 29.4%, chemicals 9%, tobacco 2.1% (2002).
The economy has been agricultural, dependent largely on large sugarcane plantations with some tobacco farming that is concentrated around the city of Arapiraca. Sugar cane formed the basis for an alcohol industry that is in decline. Small to medium-sized tanker ships took alcohol on board in Maceio's port with considerable frequency during the peak period.
Demographics
According to the IBGE of 2008, there were 3,173,000 people residing in the state. The population density was 109.9 inhabitants/km2.
Urbanization: 67.4% (2006); Population growth: 1.3% (1991–2000); Houses: 779,000 (2006).
The 2022 census revealed the following numbers: 1,887,865 Brown (Multiracial) people (60.4%), 915,400 White people (29.3%), 298,709 Black people (9.6%), 20,095 Amerindian people (0.6%), 5,505 Asian people (0.2%).
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Alagoas (CC BY-SA 4.0).
History of Alagoas: Empires and States
The atlas records 7 polities whose mapped territory included part of Alagoas, from The Portuguese Empire in 1502 CE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.
| Polity | Period here |
|---|---|
| The Portuguese Empire | 1502–1823 CE |
| The Spanish Empire | 1582–1639 CE |
| Empire of Brazil | 1822–1889 CE |
| Brazilian Republic | 1890–1966 CE |
| Unitary State of Brazil | 1932–1945 CE |
| Federated Republic of Brazil | 1967–1986 CE |
| Republic of Brazil | 1987–2024 CE |
Historical Maps of Alagoas
Alagoas on the world map in each year one of these states held it:
Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.
Largest Cities in Alagoas
5 cities mapped. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.
| # | Name | Population | Region | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maceió | 1.19 million | Alagoas | Admin-1 capital |
| 2 | Arapiraca | 187,668 | Alagoas | Populated place |
| 3 | Rio Largo | 158,545 | Alagoas | Populated place |
| 4 | Penedo | 42,097 | Alagoas | Populated place |
| 5 | Palmeira dos Índios | 41,095 | Alagoas | Populated place |
Ports in Alagoas
2 ports mapped. Ranked by approach channel depth, the figure that limits which ships can call. Harbours link to their write-up on the page of the sea or coast they lie on. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.
| # | Name | Channel Depth | Class | Sea | Max Vessel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Port de Aracaju | 56.7 m | Small | Atlantic Coast of South America | large vessels |
| 2 | Porto de Maceio | 42.1 m | Small | Atlantic Coast of South America | large vessels |
Alagoas: Quick Answers
- Where is Alagoas?
- Alagoas is a first-level division of Brazil, in South America. Its mapped cities centre on 9.7069° S, 36.2877° W.
- What is the largest city in Alagoas?
- Maceió is the largest city mapped in Alagoas, with a metropolitan population of about 1.19 million.
- How many cities are in Alagoas?
- YearMaps maps 5 cities and towns in Alagoas, with a combined metropolitan population of about 1.62 million. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.