The spatial dynamics of population in Sete Lagoas Microregion: an exploratory study

The medium cities has been studied around the world, including Brazil, due to demographic and economic dynamism that showed, but also as the role they play in the organization of the territory of his country. The city of Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais, an medium city, has developed very economically and demographically fast, especially in the last three decades. It’s a city that now occupies the top rank in Sete Lagoas Microregion composed of 20 municipalities. Using bibliographic research, systematic observations in fieldwork, spatial statistics and mapping of population exchanges intra-microregional periods of 1995-2000 and 2005-2010 was done an exploratory study that aimed to identify the influence of Sete Lagoas in his Microregion, provided the city average. This work was developed by the first two authors of this article as a basic requirement of Spatial Distribution of Population Discipline of Postgraduate Geography Programme – Spatial Information Processing, Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Minas Gerais, classed in the second half of 2012. In the end, it was found that the city of Sete Lagoas affects all municipalities in its Microregion, but in different ways.

Keywords: Sete Lagoas Microregion; Medium City; Population Exchanges.