List of metropolitan areas in Brazil in the context of "Belo Horizonte"

São Paulo (/ˌsaʊ ˈpaʊloʊ/; Portuguese: [sɐ̃w ˈpawlu] ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the capital city of the state of São Paulo, as well as the most populous city in Brazil and in the Americas. Listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as an alpha global city, it exerts substantial international influence in commerce, finance, arts, and entertainment. It is the largest urban area by population outside Asia and the most populous Portuguese-speaking city in the world. The city's name honors Paul the Apostle and people from the city are known as paulistanos. The city's Latin motto is Non ducor, duco, which translates as "I am not led, I lead".

Founded in 1554 by Jesuit priests, the city was the center of the bandeirantes settlers during Colonial Brazil, but it became a relevant economic force only during the Brazilian coffee cycle in the mid-19th century and later consolidated its role as the main national economic hub with industrialization in Brazil in the 20th century, which made the city a cosmopolitan melting pot, home to the largest Arab, Italian, and Japanese diasporas in the world, with ethnic neighborhoods like Bixiga, Bom Retiro, and Liberdade, and people from more than 200 other countries. The city's metropolitan area, Greater São Paulo, is home to more than 20 million inhabitants and ranks as the most populous in Brazil and one of the most populous in the world. The process of conurbation between the metropolitan areas around Greater São Paulo also created the São Paulo Macrometropolis, the first megalopolis in the Southern Hemisphere, with more than 30 million inhabitants.

Minas Gerais (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈminɐz ʒeˈɾajs] ; English: /ˈmɪnəs dʒəˈraɪs/ MIN-əs jə-RYS lit. 'General Mines') is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 census. Located in the Southeast Region of the country, it is bordered to south and southwest by São Paulo; Mato Grosso do Sul to the west; Goiás and the Federal District to the northwest; Bahia to the north and northeast; Espírito Santo to the east; and Rio de Janeiro to the southeast. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a major urban and finance center in Brazil, being the sixth most populous municipality in the country while its metropolitan area ranks as the third largest in Brazil with just over 5.8 million inhabitants, after those of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Minas Gerais' territory is subdivided into 853 municipalities, the largest number among Brazilian states.

The state's terrain is quite rugged and some of Brazil's highest peaks are located in its territory. It is also home to the source of some of Brazil's main rivers, such as the São Francisco, Grande, Paranaíba, Doce and Jequitinhonha rivers, which places it in a strategic position with regard to the country's water resources. It has a tropical climate, which varies from colder and humid in the south to semi-arid in its northern portion. All of these combined factors provide it with a rich fauna and flora distributed in the biomes that cover the state, especially the Cerrado and the threatened Atlantic Forest.

Porto Alegre (UK: /ˌpɔːrtuː əˈlɛɡreɪ/, US: /- ɑːˈleɪɡri, ˌpɔːrtoʊ əˈlɛɡrə/; Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈpoʁtu aˈlɛɡɾi, -tw aˈ-] , locally [ˈpoɾ-]; lit. 'Joyful Harbor') is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the 11th-most populous city in the country and the centre of Brazil's fifth-largest metropolitan area, with 4.1 million inhabitants (2022). The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian state.

Porto Alegre was founded in 1769 by Manuel Jorge Gomes de Sepúlveda, who used the pseudonym José Marcelino de Figueiredo to hide his identity; the official date, though, is 1772 with the act signed by immigrants from the Azores, Portugal.