Monte Alegre de Minas

Monte Alegre de Minas is a Brazilian municipality located in the west of the state of Minas Gerais. Its population as of 2007 was 18,348 living in a total area of 2,593 km². The city belongs to the statistical mesoregion of Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba and to the statistical microregion of Uberlândia. It became a municipality in 1870.

Monte Alegre is located at an elevation of 730 meters in the rich region known as the Triângulo Mineiro. It is east of Uberlândia and south of the great hydroelectric station and reservoir of Itumbiara. Federal highway BR-365, which links the state boundary of Goiás to Pirapora in the north passes on the edge of the town.

The distance to Uberlândia is 68 km; the distance to Itumbiara is 80 km; and the distance to Belo Horizonte is 601 km. Neighboring municipalities are: Araporã and Tupaciguara (N); Centralina (W) ; Prata(S); Uberlândia (E)

The main economic activities are industry, services, and agriculture, especially the growing of pineapple and sugarcane. The GDP in 2005 was R$209,000.00, with 73,000.00 from services, 7,000.00 from industry, and 120,000.00 from agriculture. There were 1,486 rural producers on 205,000 hectares of land. 473 farms had tractors. The main crops were oranges, pineapple, bananas, sugarcane (8,500 hectares), soybeans (30,000 hectares), and corn. There were 132,000 head of cattle (2006) and over one million chickens.

The social indicators rank it in the top tier of municipalities in the state.

The highest ranking municipality in Minas Gerais in 2000 was Poços de Caldas with 0.841, while the lowest was Setubinha with 0.568. Nationally the highest was São Caetano do Sul in São Paulo with 0.919, while the lowest was Setubinha. In more recent statistics (considering 5,507 municipalities) Manari in the state of Pernambuco has the lowest rating in the country--0,467--putting it in last place.

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