São Gotardo is a Brazilian

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

located in the northwest of the state of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

. Its population as of 2020 was 35,782 people and its land area is 854 km². The city belongs to the mesoregion of Triângulo Mineiro e Alto Paranaiba and to the

microregion Microregion is a designation for territorial entities. Austria *Microregion (Tyrol) Brazil * Microregion (Brazil) Klaus Roth and Ulf Brunnbauer A microregion is a geographic region of a size between that of a community and that of a district.p. ...

Patos de Minas Patos de Minas is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Geography According to the modern (2017) geographic classification by Brazil's National Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the city is the main municipality in ...

. It became a municipality in 1915.

Location

The urban center is located at an elevation of 1,100 meters southeast of

in the upper Abaeté River valley. The region is made up of a plateau called Mata da Corda. The climate is mild and frost can occur in the dry season (from May to September). Neighboring municipalities are: Matutina and

Tiros TIROS, or Television InfraRed Observation Satellite, is a series of early weather satellites launched by the United States, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. TIROS was the first satellite that was capable of remote sensing of the Earth, enabli ...

to the North, Rio Paranaíba to the east, Campos Altos and Santa Rosa da Serra to the south, and Quartel Geral to the west.

Distances

: 101 km * Araxá: 163 km * Estalagem: 55 km (BR-262) * Rio Paranaíba: 20 km * Matutina: 22 km *

: 43 km * Arapua:50 km * Belo Horizonte: 295 km

Economic activities

The most important economic activities are cattle raising, commerce, and agriculture. The GDP in 2005 was R$277 million, with 166 million generated by services, 18 million generated by industry, and 66 million generated by agriculture.IBGE
/ref> São Gotardo is in the top tier of municipalities in the state with regard to economic and social development. As of 2007, there were 05 banking agencies in the town. There was a well-developed retail infrastructure serving the surrounding area of cattle and agricultural lands. There were 5,961 automobiles in all of the municipality (2007), about one for every 05 inhabitants. São Gotardo is a large producer of agricultural products, especially coffee and corn. The high elevation combined with tropical latitude allows it to produce coffee and wheat. In the rural area there were 825 establishments (2006) occupying 61,000 hectares (planted area of 14,000 ha and natural pasture of 35,000 ha.). About 3,000 persons were dependent on agriculture. 113 of the farms had tractors, a ratio of one in 7 farms. There were 43,000 head of cattle in 2006. The main crops were: *avocado: 120 hectares *coffee: 2,820 hectares *garlic: 65 hectares *potatoes: 110 hectares *onions: 77 hectares *beans: 420 hectares *corn: 3,600 hectares *soybeans: 1,500 hectares *wheat: 130 hectares

Health and education

In the health sector there were 13 health clinics and 02 hospitals with 44 beds In the educational sector there were 12 pre-primary schools, 17 primary schools, and 05 middle schools. *Municipal

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, wh ...

: 0.807 (2000) *State ranking: 30 out of 853 municipalities as of 2000 *National ranking: 439 out of 5,138 municipalities as of 2000 *Literacy rate: 88% *Life expectancy: 73 (average of males and females)Frigoletto
/ref> The highest ranking municipality in Minas Gerais in 2000 was Poços de Caldas with 0.841, while the lowest was

Setubinha Setubinha is a municipality in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2020 the population was 12,378 in a total area of 536 km². The elevation is 729 metres. It is part of the IBGE statistical microregion of Teófilo ...

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 Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

has the lowest rating in the country, 467, putting it in last place.

Origin of the Name

The name is inspired by Joaquim ''Gotardo'' de Lima who arrived in the region in 1836 with his family and settled on a cattle ranch which later developed into a small settlement around a chapel. In 1852 the first settlement, known as Confusão, after a local ranch, was raised to a district with the name of São Sebastião do Pouso Alegre. Later the name was changed to pay homage to the founder, who unexpectedly gained sainthood in the new name. Prefeitura de São Gotardo
/ref>

Location

Distances

Economic activities

Health and education

Origin of the Name

References

See also