Campinas


Campinas is a city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, located 84 kilometers northwest of the city of São Paulo. As of 2024, the city's population is estimated at 1,185,977, making it the fourteenth most populous Brazilian city and the third most populous in São Paulo state. The city's metropolitan area encompasses twenty municipalities with a total population of 3,491,150 people.

Etymology

Campinas means grass fields in Portuguese and refers to its characteristic landscape, which originally comprised large stretches of dense subtropical forests, mainly along the many rivers, interspersed with gently rolling hills covered by low-lying vegetation.
Campinas' official crest and flag has a picture of the mythical bird, the phoenix, because it was practically reborn after a devastating epidemic of yellow fever in the 1800s, which killed more than 25% of the city's inhabitants.

History

The city was founded on July 14, 1774, by Barreto Leme. It was initially a simple outpost on the way to Minas Gerais and Goiás serving the "Bandeirantes" who were in search of precious minerals and Indian slaves. In the first half of the 19th century, Campinas became a growing population center, with many coffee, cotton and sugarcane farms.
The construction of a railway linking the city of São Paulo to Santos' seaport, in 1867, was very important for its growth. In the second half of the 19th century, with the abolition of slavery, farming and industrialization attracted many foreign immigrants to replace the lost manpower, mainly from Italy.
Coffee became an important export and the city became wealthy. In consequence, a large service sector was established to serve the growing population, and in the first decades of the 20th century, Campinas could already boast of an opera house, theaters, banks, movie theaters, radio stations, a philharmonic orchestra, two newspapers, a good public education system, and hospitals, such as the Santa Casa de Misericórdia.
And the Casa de Saúde de Campinas, and the most important Brazilian research center in agricultural sciences, the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, which was founded by Emperor Pedro II. Finally, the construction of the first Brazilian highway in 1938, between Campinas and São Paulo, the Anhanguera Highway, was a turning point in the integration of Campinas into the rest of the state.
Campinas was the birthplace of opera composer Carlos Gomes and of the President of the Republic Campos Salles. It was home for 49 years to Hércules Florence, reputed as one of the early inventors of photography, photocopying and the mimeograph.

Geography

The area of the city, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, is ; of this is the urban area and remaining constitute greater Campinas. It is located at 22°54′21″S, 47°03′39″W and is at a distance of northwest of São Paulo. Its neighboring cities are Paulínia, Jaguariúna and Pedreira, north; Morungaba, Itatiba and Valinhos in the east; Itupeva, Indaiatuba and Monte Mor, south, and Hortolândia in the west.

Ecology

Most of the original vegetation of the city was largely eliminated. Like 13 other municipalities in the metropolitan region of Campinas, the city is subject to some environmental stress, and Campinas is considered one of the areas liable to flooding and silting; it now has less than 5% of vegetation cover in total area.
Trying to reverse this situation, several projects have been and are being conducted and planned, such as building corridors, and the regulation of the Management Plan of Environmental Preservation Area in Campinas. There are also several environmental projects to combat the destruction of riparian forests located along the banks of the Atibaia river, which has a high level of pollution. Today, Campinas houses the area of relevant ecological interest Mata de Santa Genebra,, established in 1985 by the city of Campinas' Fundação José Pedro de Oliveira and regulated by the Brazilian Environment and Renewable Natural Resources Institute. This is the now second-largest urban forest of Brazil, behind only the Tijuca Forest, in Rio de Janeiro.
The city also has smaller urban forest groves and reserve parks, such as the Bosque dos Jequitibas, the Bosque dos Italianos, the Bosque dos Alemães, Guarantã's Park, as well as the larger Parque Portugal, "Dom Bosco" Ecological Park and Monsenhor "Emílio José Salim" Ecological Park.

Climate

The city has a tropical savanna climate. It was humid subtropical before the current climatic table.
Winters are generally dry and mild, and summers rainy with warm to hot temperatures. The warmest month is February, with an average temperature of 24 °C, an average maximum of 29.1 °C and average minimum of 19.0 °C. The coldest month, July, sees respective temperatures of 17.8 °C, and 24.2 °C and 11.4 °C average maximum and minimum. Fall and spring are transitional seasons.
The average annual rainfall is 1424.5 mm and the driest month in August, when there is only 22.9 mm. In January, the rainiest month, the average is 280.3 mm. In recent years, however, the hot, dry days during the winter have been increasingly frequent, often surpassing 30 °C, especially between July and September. In August 2010, for example, the rainfall in Campinas was only 0 mm. During the dry season and long dry spells in the middle of the rainy season are also common records of fires in the hills and thickets, especially in rural areas of the city, which contributes to deforestation and the release of pollutants into the atmosphere, further worsening air quality.
The lowest temperature recorded in the city was −1.5 °C on June 25, 1918. The highest temperature was 39.0 °C, observed on 17 November 1985. The highest cumulative rainfall recorded in 24 hours in the city between June 1988 and October 2008 was 143.4 mm in 25 days May 2005. Between 1890 and 2004 there were 41 occurrences of frost in Campinas. The most recent was on July 18, 2000, when the minimum temperature reached 2.2 °C. There are also occasional episodes of strong winds, with gusts exceeding 100 km / h, and training records were made in the city day May 4, 2001 and March 9, 2008.
The wet season is from mid-October to mid-April, with heavier rains particularly in December, January, February and early March, and the dry season is from mid-May to mid-September. Average rainfall is 24.3 mm in August and 267.8 mm in January. Average humidity ranges from 37% to 56%.
In the region around Campinas near the state of Minas Gerais there are a number of cities which enjoy an even milder mountain climate, such as Serra Negra, Socorro, Lindóia and Águas de Lindoia, where several water spas are located.

Demographics

According to the 2022 Census, as of August 2022, Campinas had a population of 1,139,047 and a population density of 1.433,54. Infant mortality levels were at up to 1 year : 14.05 and life expectancy in the city was 72.22 years. The fertility rate was at 1.78 children per woman. 96.01 of the populace could read.
Source: 2022 census:
Color / RacePercentage
White59.5%
Pardo30.1%
Black9.2%
Asian1.0%
Indigenous0.1%

Composition

Source: 2022 Census
Population : 1,139,047
Population% / inhabitants
Urban area98,28% / 1,062,453
Rural area1,72% / 18,546

Sex% / inhabitants
Male48,22% / 521,209
Female51,78% / 559,790

Metropolitan region

, Campinas became an official metropolitan region, with 19 municipalities, with a total of 2.8 million inhabitants and a total land area of , adjacent to the São Paulo metropolitan region and São José dos Campos. The Campinas Metropolitan area also comprehends a gross domestic product of R$70.7 billion.
The Campinas municipality is also the administrative center of the micro- and meso-regions of the same name. The micro-region includes the RMC and the municipality of Elias Fausto; the meso-region also includes the following municipalities: Aguaí, Amparo, Águas da Prata, Águas de Lindóia, Caconde, Casa Branca, Divinolândia, Espírito Santo do Pinhal, Estiva Gerbi, Itapira, Itobi, Lindóia, Mococa, Mogi Guaçu, Moji-Mirim, Monte Alegre do Sul, Pedra Bela, Pinhalzinho, Pirassununga, Porto Ferreira, Santa Cruz das Palmeiras, Santo Antônio do Jardim, São João da Boa Vista, São José do Rio Pardo, São Sebastião da Grama, Serra Negra, Socorro, Tambaú, Tapiratiba, Vargem Grande do Sul and Vinhedo.
Other cities which are geographically, historically or economically tied to the meso-region of Campinas could be mentioned: Araras, Atibaia, Bragança Paulista, Capivari, Conchal, Iracemápolis, Itu, Itupeva, Jarinu, Jundiai, Limeira, Louveira, Mombuca, Morungaba, Piracicaba, Rafard, Rio das Pedras, Salto and Tuiuti.

Economy

Campinas is the richest city in the metropolitan region of Campinas and the 10th richest city in Brazil, showing a gross domestic product of 36.68 billion reais, which represents almost 1% of all Brazilian GDP. Currently, the city concentrates 10% of industrial production of Brazil. The paper highlights the high-tech industries and metallurgical park, considered the capital of Silicon Valley Sterling.
The region hosts 17,677 industries, the second largest number in the State of São Paulo.
The petrochemical complex is centered in the Southeastern section, a few miles from Campinas, near the refinery of Petrobras Planalto Paulista, the largest in Brazil one of the largest in Latin America, and has companies like Dupont, Chevron, Shell, Exxon, Group Ipiranga, Eucatex, Rhodia, and others. It is the hub of companies and Blue Trip. The largest companies have a global turnover of more than $80 billion, larger than many Latin American countries.
The city has several shopping malls, two of the largest being Iguatemi Campinas and Shopping Parque Dom Pedro. Campinas has, within its metropolitan area, the largest cargo airport for import/export, Viracopos International Airport, a significant entity in the international transport of cargo.
Campinas' main economic activities are agriculture, industry, commerce and services.
The Campinas Metropolitan Region is home to many national and international high-tech industries and IT companies, including IBM, Dell, Motorola, NXP, Lucent, Nortel, Compaq, Celestica, Samsung, Alcatel, Bosch, 3M, Texas Instruments, CI&T and .
The airline TRIP Linhas Aéreas is headquartered in Campinas. The Viracopos airport is also the operational hub of Azul Airlines.
The automotive industry is also heavily represented: General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Magneti Marelli, Eaton Corporation, Tenneco, Toyota and many others are present. It also has a sizable pharmaceutical industry sector, with companies like Medley Farma, EMS Farma, Altana, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Cristália, Valeo, etc.
In addition the region is home to many research centers and universities, such as the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory, Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory, National Laboratory of Science and Technology of Bioethanol, Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory, Centro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Telecomunicações, CenPRA, Embrapa, Unicamp, Facamp and Puccamp. According to the Times Higher Education 2007 World University Rankings, the University of Campinas is the 177th best university in the world, and the 2nd best in Latin America.
Campinas also boasts the largest number of high-tech business incubators and industrial parks, such as the CIATEC I and II, Softex, TechnoPark, InCamp, Polis, TechTown, Industrial Park of Campinas, and others.
The presence of one of the largest oil refineries in Latin America, operated by Petrobras in the neighboring county of Paulínia, has attracted many petrochemical companies to the Campinas area, including DuPont, Rhone-Poulenc, and Royal Dutch Shell.
The Brazilian Pró-Álcool Program was developed in Campinas: a whole industry based on the use of ethanol as a combustible for motor vehicles, going from a new sucrose-rich sugarcane, to alcohol refineries, a huge distribution system, and, most recently, an internal combustion engine capable of using either gasoline or ethanol.
Other examples of Campinas-bred technologies are fiber optics, lasers for telecommunications and medical applications, integrated circuits design and fabrication, satellite environmental monitoring of natural resources, software for agriculture, digital telephone switches, deep-water oil exploration platforms and technologies, biomedical equipment, medical software, genetic engineering and recombinant DNA technologies for food production and pharmaceutics, and food engineering. Because of this, Campinas has been called the Brazilian Silicon Valley.