Santa Maria do Salto is a municipality in the northeast of the Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian state of Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...

. Its population in 2007 was 5,724 inhabitants in a total area of 442 km².

Santa Maria do Salto belongs to the Almenara

Almenara, Minas Gerais

Almenara is a city in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Situated on the Jequitinhonha River it is the largest town in that river valley. Its 2007 population was estimated at 36,907 and the municipal area was 2,301 km²....

 statistical microregion. The elevation of the municipal seat is 220 meters. It became a municipality in 1962. This municipality is located south of the Jequitinhonha River and is bordered by the state of Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. The name of the state means literally "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity...

 on the east.
Neighboring municipalities are: Eunápolis

Eunápolis

Eunápolis is a municipality in Bahia with 99,553 people. The town was founded in 1988. In 1996, the city was made the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Eunápolis.- External links :*...

, Salto da Divisa

Salto da Divisa

Salto da Divisa is a municipality in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Its population in 2008 was 7,127 inhabitants in a total area of 943.647 km². It is the easternmost municipality of Minas Gerais...

, and Jacinto

Jacinto, Minas Gerais

Jacinto is a Brazilian municipality located in the northeast of the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion of Jequitinhonha and to the microregion of Almenara. As of 2007 the population was 12,422 in a total area of 1,391 km²....

. There are poor highway connections with Salto da Divisa, 68 km. to the northeast, which has paved connections to the important BR-101, a distance of 48 km. to the east.

The main economic activities are cattle raising, and subsistence farming. The GDP was R$16,530,000 (2005). There were no banking agencies listed in 2006. There were 88 automobiles in 2007. The main cash crop was coffee and there was production of bananas and sugarcane. In the health sector there were 02 health clinics and no hospitals. The score on the Municipal Human Development Index

Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...

 was 0.633 (medium). This ranked Santa Maria do Salto 784 out of 853 municipalities in the state, with Poços de Caldas

Poços de Caldas

Poços de Caldas is a city and municipality in south-western Minas Gerais state, Brazil, in the microregion of the same name. Its estimated population in 2009 was 151,449 inhabitants...

 in first place with 0.841 and Setubinha

Setubinha

Setubinha is a municipality in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2007 the population was 10,834 in a total area of 536 km². The elevation is 729 metres. It is part of the IBGE statistical microregion of Teófilo Otoni...

in last place with 0.568.

In 2006 there were 201 rural farms with 600 hectares of planted area. Most of the rural area was natural pasture or woodland. Only 03 of the farms had tractors. There was a cattle herd of 8,000 head, the cattle being raised mainly for meat.