8 of the 10 best cities to live in Brazil are in the state of São Paulo

The concept of living well includes much more than a comfortable property. Infrastructure, security, health and good education are among the requirements needed to provide a region with adequate living conditions. This is what the first report of the Brazil Social Progress Index (IPS Brazil) 2024 reveals, which shows that eight of the ten best cities to live in Brazil are located in the state of São Paulo.

The study reveals that, according to the overview, there is significant inequality in the distribution of social progress among Brazilian municipalities. It is possible to observe a contrast between the Legal Amazon, where most of the critical municipalities are concentrated, and the southeast of Brazil, for example, with the highest scores for the municipalities of Gavião Peixoto, São Carlos, Nuporanga, Indaiatuba, Gabriel Monteiro, Águas de São Pedro, Jaguariúna and Araraquara in the state of São Paulo.

For the economist at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Carla Beni, data collection in Brazil is a major challenge, as it fails to present a panorama that shows basic human needs.

“When we think about the quality of life of the population, we are basically thinking about how resources are reallocated, the greater the efficiency of reallocation of public goods and services, understood as health, education, infrastructure, public safety, urban mobility, all of this is what will map the best cities, because the citizen does not live in the federation, he lives in his municipality”. Carla Beni continues.

“So, it has water, it has electricity, it has infrastructure. The children have school, you have opportunities to improve your individual decisions, if you want to open a business, if you can prosper, or not”, he analyzes.

Housing conditions and emotional factors

Living well or poorly can also influence a person’s emotional state. Problems with stress, anxiety and depression can be associated with the place where one lives, as well as excessive noise, lack of sunlight and visual pollution. All of these characteristics can be factors that increase stress, symptoms of anxiety or even depression, as explained by psychologist Cris Pertusi.

“There are external, environmental factors, and there are internal factors. It is the combination of the individual’s internal capacity, resilience, and ability to endure, plus environmental conditions. This combination is the biggest factor in mental and emotional illness,” he highlights.

Due to the extreme agitation, the psychologist believes that some people choose cities in the interior, which puts these municipalities in the spotlight in research.

“In capital cities, sometimes the quality of life is more precarious, there are greater difficulties, people are more agitated and don’t notice it as much. And in smaller cities, sometimes people start to have a different pace of life and an ability to perceive the need or even make life a little more peaceful”, he points out.

Economist Carla Beni goes further.

“The central question is, does the municipality meet the most essential needs of its population? And this was our best score in Brazil as a whole, it was 73.58, which signals an improvement for the country as a whole, but, yes, we need to improve the regional development of the municipalities that fell below this classification”, he highlights.

About the publication

The publication of the Amazon Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon), in partnership with Avina FoundationAmazon 2030, Anattá Research and Development, Amazon Entrepreneurship Center and Social Progress Imperativepoints out the ranking of the 20 municipalities with the best and worst performances. According to the document, there is a great contrast between the Legal Amazon, where most of the critical municipalities are concentrated, and the Southeast of Brazil, where the municipalities with the highest IPS scores are located.

When taking into account the Water and Sanitation components, municipalities in the interior of São Paulo and states in the Southeast and South of Brazil performed better. On the other hand, the situation was more critical in municipalities located in the Legal Amazon.

The report covers Brazil’s 5,570 municipalities, 26 federative units and the Federal District. Among the components, those with the best overall average were Housing (87.74) and Water and Sanitation (77.79). On the other hand, the most critical were Individual Rights (35.97) and Access to Higher Education (43.88). One of the portraits of inequality in the country is access to quality water and basic sanitation, the study points out.