Editing Belo Horizonte (section)

===Surrounding cities and metropolitan area===
[[File:Belo Horizonte at night.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Belo Horizonte from [[ISS]] at night.]]

The term "Grande BH" ("Greater Belo Horizonte") denotes any of various definitions for the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte. The legally defined ''Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte'' consists of 34 municipalities in total, and a population of around six million inhabitants ({{As of|2021|lc=y}}, according to Brazil's National Institute of Geography and Statistics ([[Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics|IBGE]])).<ref name="IBGE_Pop_2007">{{cite web | url = http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/contagem2007/popmunic2007layoutTCU14112007.xls | title = Estimativas / Contagem da População 2007 | date = November 14, 2007 | publisher = Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) | access-date = May 29, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080611205529/http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/contagem2007/popmunic2007layoutTCU14112007.xls | archive-date = June 11, 2008 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name="SIDRA">{{cite web | url = http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/listabl.asp?z=cd&o=17&i=P&c=793 | title = Tabela 793 – População residente, em 1º de abril de 2007: Publicação Completa | date = November 14, 2007 | publisher = Sistema IBGE de Recuperação Automática (SIDRA) | access-date = May 29, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614223617/http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/listabl.asp?z=cd&o=17&i=P&c=793 | archive-date = June 14, 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref>

The intense process of urbanization that is taking place in the metropolitan region has made some of the political boundaries between municipalities in the region obsolete.

The city is now composed of a relatively contiguous urban area, centred on Belo Horizonte, which extends out into municipalities such as [[Contagem]], [[Betim]], [[Nova Lima]], [[Raposos]], [[Ribeirão das Neves]], [[Ibirité]], [[Santa Luzia, Minas Gerais|Santa Luzia]] and [[Sabará]], among others.

The municipality is bounded to the north by [[Vespasiano]], to the north east by Santa Luzia, by Sabará to the east, by Nova Lima to the southeast, [[Brumadinho]] to the south and Ribeirão das Neves, Contagem and [[Ibirité]] to the west.

According to the current [[List of Intermediate and Immediate Geographic Regions of Minas Gerais|geographic classification]] by IBGE, the municipality belongs to the [[Immediate Geographic Region of Belo Horizonte]], in the [[Intermediate Geographic Region of Belo Horizonte]].