Santa Vitória is a municipality in the west of the Brazilian 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...

. , the population was 18,157. It became a municipality in 1948.

Santa Vitória is located at an elevation of 498 meters just south of the great reservoir Barragem de São Simão in the Triângulo Mineiro

Triângulo Mineiro

The Triangle Mineiro Portuguese pronunciation: [tɾiɐɡulu minejru] is an officer in the region west of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The area is 93.500 km ² and is limited by the Serra da Canastra and Marcela, east, south of Sao Paulo, Goias in the north and west of the junction of the rivers...

. It belongs to the statistical microregion of Ituiutaba

Ituiutaba

Ituiutaba is a city and municipality in the western part of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Elevated to city status in 1901, it had a population in 2007 of 100,316 and a total area in the municipality of 2,694 km²...

. Neighboring municipalities are São Simão

São Simão, Goiás

São Simão is a small town and a municipality in south-central Goiás state, Brazil.-Location:São Simão is strategically situated on the border of Goiás with Minas Gerais, which makes it a major river navigation link between central Brazil, the Prata river system and the South Atlantic...

, União de Minas

União de Minas

-Location:União de Minas belongs to the statistical micro-region of Frutal. It is located at an elevation of 521 meters between the São Domingos River and the Grande River.Neighboring municipalities are:*North: Santa Vitória*West: Limeira do Oeste...

, Limeira do Oeste

Limeira do Oeste

Limeira do Oeste is a municipality in the west of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2007 the population was 6,492 in a total area of 1,318 km². It became a municipality in 1993.-Location:...

, Campina Verde

Campina Verde

Campina Verde is a municipality in the north of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2007 the population was 18,680 in a total area of 3,663 km². It became a municipality in 1938.-Location:...

 and Gurinhatã

Gurinhatã

Gurinhatã is a municipality in the west of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2007 the population was 6,194 in a total area of 1,844 km². It became a municipality in 1962.-Location:...

.

History

Settlement began in the beginning of the nineteenth century with the cattle ranch called São Jerônimo. The region was occupied by the Caiapó Indians who were dominated and expelled. The region was covered by forests and malaria was endemic. The first church appeared in 1904, followed by the cemetery in 1905. Santa Vitória belonged to the municipality of Ituiutaba, becoming a separate municipality in 1948.

Economy

The most important economic activities are cattle raising, commerce and agriculture. The GDP in 2005 was R$ 56,025,000. Santa Vitória is in the top tier of municipalities in the state with regard to economic and social development. It is in a region of good soils, adequate rainfall, and abundance of surface water. As of 2007 there was 01 banking agency in the town. There was a small retail commerce serving the surrounding area of cattle and agricultural lands. In the rural area there were 963 establishments occupying about 1,500 persons. 311 of the farms had tractors. There were 1,720 automobiles in all of the municipality. There were 211,000 head of cattle in 2006. The crops with a planted area of more than 100 hectares were rice, sugarcane, soybeans (2,800 ha.) and corn.
Cattle production is important with a large herd. Cattle are raised for meat and milk. 18 producers specialize in milk production. In 2006 there were 23,000 dairy cattle. There is also a substantial swine industry.

Health and education

In the health sector there were 9 clinics and one hospital with 37 beds. In the educational sector there were 12 primary schools and 2 middle schools.

• 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...
  
  : 0.759 (2000)
• State ranking: 214 out of 853 municipalities as of 2000
• National ranking: 1,604 out of 5,138 municipalities as of 2000

See also

• List of municipalities in Minas Gerais