Pattern and determinants of the brazilian microregions urban infrastructure

Abstract

A better urban infrastructure is associated with better development indexes. In this perspective, this research tried to find the factors of urban development of the Brazilian micro-regions. For this, we used factor analysis to find patterns of development related to urban infrastructure. Then it built an index allowing to order the 558 Brazilian micro-regions and classify them into high, medium and low level of urban infrastructure. It was possible to extract five factors that explain 72,58% of the total variance of the data. Most micro-regions were classified as low level of urban infrastructure, while 14,69% of micro-regions were classified with high infrastructure, with most in the Southeast. The states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais led the ranking with the highest number of micro-regions with high urban infrastructure. The opposite was observed to the North, which got no micro-regions with high infrastructure.