Maringá is a city in southern Brazil that was founded on May 10, 1947. Maringá is the third largest city in the state of Paraná

Paraná (state)

Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

. The city has a population of 357,117 (IBGE 2010), 612,617 in its metropolitan area (IBGE 2010). It is a regional centre of commerce, services, agro-industries, and universities, including the State University of Maringá

State University of Maringá

The State University of Maringá was founded in 1970 and recognized in 1976 by the Federal Government of Brazil. Its academic population is estimated in 18,000 people among professors, undergraduates, graduate students and manager technicals....

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History

In 1925, the Northern Paraná Land Company was established on London, England. It was responsible for the settling of more than 500000 acres (2,023.4 km²) in the northern part of Paraná State, Brazil, which today contains some of the largest cities in Paraná.

The region's fertile land encouraged São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

 colonists to move in and acquire new areas for production. The northern region of Paraná encloses nearly 100 thousand km². It is watered by the Rivers Paranapanema, Paraná, Ivaí and Piquiri.
The region is divided into three areas (according to settlement periods): Old North, New North and Latest North.

The urban project requested by the British Company Improvements North of the Paraná (Melhoramentos Co.) and elaborated by the city planner Jorge Macedo Vieira, defined the outlines of the new city. Maringá was received the category of city on 14 February 1951.

The Company, worried about deforestation proceeding from the occupation foreseen in the urbanistics projects, reserved three great ecological areas within the urban limits: the Forest Horto, the Park of the Ingá and Forest II. The service sector is
Maringá's largest (76,74%), followed by industrial (22,29%) and finally farming (0,97%). Within industry, the food-processing, chemical and textile sectors predominate (source: Paraná City).

Media

The main forms of media are the internet, radio, print newspapers, television, phone and mobile phone companies.
The main companies responsible for telephony in the city of Maringá are Embratel, GVT, Brasil Telecom (Oi) and NET. About mobile phone operators, the companies are Vivo, Tim, Claro, Nextel and Oi.

There are affiliated TV stations. The main ones are:

Channel 02 - TV Metropolitana (Rede Minas)

Channel 04 - Rede Massa - TV Tibagi (SBT)

Channel 06 - TV Maringá (Rede Bandeirantes)

Channel 08 - RPC TV Cultura (Rede Globo)

Channel 10 - RTV Canal 10 (Rede Minas)

Channel 13 - RICTV Maringá (Rede Record)

Channel 15 - Rede Vida (Rede Vida)

Channel 19 - CNT Maringá (CNT)

Channel 23 - RedeTV! Maringá (Rede TV)

Channel 25 - MTV Brasil (MTV)

Channel 31 - TV 3º Milênio/Século XXI (Rede Século XXI)

Channel 41 - RPC TV Cultura (Rede Globo) - HDTV

Channel 44 - Record News (Rede Record News)

Channel 47 - RIT TV (RIT)

Channel 57 - Canção Nova (Rede Canção Nova)

The main FM radio stations in the city are:

Radio Massa FM - 92.3;

Radio Cesumar FM - 94.9;

Radio CBN FM - 95.5;

Radio Maringá FM - 97.1;

Radio Mix FM - 97.9;

Radio Maia FM - 99.3 FM;

Radio Jovem Pan FM - 101.3;

Radio Cultura FM - 102.5;

Radio Aleluia FM - 104.3;

Radio Novo Tempo FM - 104.9;

Radio Nativa FM - 105.7;

Radio Comunitaria - 105.9;

Radio Catedral FM - 106.5;

Radio Universitária FM - 106.9.

Climate

The climate is humid subtropical (well distributed rainfall), where the average temperature of the coldest month is around 62 °F (17 °C) and average annual temperatures around 71.51 °F (21.95 °C).
Because of its location, situated in the southern Brazilian and cut by the Tropic of Capricorn, the region of Maringá is influenced by several macro-climatic factors that cause: migration of air masses from the Atlantic Ocean and from the Tropical zone.
In the winter the infiltration of cold air from the polar front is common, frosts occur twice or three times a year. The city is marked by the black ice that decimated agriculture in 1975.

• Minimum recorded temperature: 24 °F (-4.7 °C) in 1975.
• Maximum recorded temperature: 106 °F (41.2 °C) in 1985.

Flora

The city planned from its inception, offers an enviable flora. During all whole the year you can see its tree-lined streets that produces a good air to breathe. Maringá is considered one of the greenest cities in the world.

Maringá has one of the highest rates of concentration of green area per capita, there are 90 acres (364,217.4 m²) of native forest on 17 preserved areas.

The city preserves within its limits large areas of native forest in the Horto Florestal, Parque dos Pioneiros (Bosque II) and Parque do Inga, this being open to the public. It also includes smaller preserved areas as the Parque do Cinquentenário, private areas and so on.

Pollution

Proportionally, Maringá has one of the largest fleets per capita of vehicles from Paraná State. Because of it, there are some places of the city with pollution levels above the tolerable. Two regions in the city are the biggest problems, they are the avenue Duque de Caxias and Colombo.
Industries, pesticides, noise pollution and household waste, also contribute very significantly to the pollution of the city.
Even with the problems, Maringá still preserving the reputation of green city.

Economy

Maringá is highlighted today by the commercial sector and service delivery.

Agriculture

The agriculture still is fundamental for Maringá, although its importance has declined in recent years. Farming is diversified, and besides coffee, today are produced corn, wheat, cotton, ramie, beans, peanuts, rice, sugar cane, and especially soybeans.

Industry

Among the various segments in the industrial sector of Maringá, there are metal-mechanics, agribusiness, apparel and food companies.
The industrial sector is not as expressive as agriculture, but it's growing. The city has a growing fleet that handles weaving and agribusiness, but mostly clothing. Big industries such as Cocamar, Coca-Cola, Noma, among others, foster job creation in the region, and even other cities. Metalworking industries serving the entire country and also exports to countries in Latin America a very large range of products. Maringá is the fashion hub in the south of Brazil, with the largest wholesale mall in Latin America, the Mercosul. Recently, Maringá also has been highlighted in the software market, with a consolidated APL (Local Productive Arrangements).

Service sector

Maringá has five shopping mall: Avenida Center Mall, Cidade Mall, Mandacaru Boulevard Mall, Maringá Park Mall (formerly Aspen Park Mall) and Catuaí Maringá Mall, this is the second largest shopping mall in the State of Paraná (behind only Londrina Catuaí Mall).
The commercial vocation of Maringá can be proven by dynamism and variety of items offered by companies from the sectors of food products, pharmaceuticals, clothing, appliances, fittings, bookstores, restaurants, snack bars. And for being a polo wholesaler, commodity prices are also competitive. These factors combine to attract consumers from different regions of Paraná, southwest of São Paulo and some cities in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.
The companies act in at least seven segments of the wholesale market: food, dry goods and offal, paper, glass, textiles, wood, auto parts and appliances. Not to mention the many garment industries, which basically sell them at wholesale.
The city houses the Maringa and Region Convention & Visitors Bureau, an organization of character and independent nonprofit whose goal is to develop the regional economy by encouraging tourism events. Established and maintained by public and private initiatives related to tourism and events industry, is responsible for planned development of the same, including the city effectively in national and international tourist circuit.

Sílvio Name Júnior Regional Airport has scheduled air connections to major centers in Brazil.

Ethnicity

The region of Maringá has a great influence of Japanese immigrants; Maringá also had a great influence of Italian and German immigrants, in which the Germans met and formed an association, the Teutonic-Brazilian association. Then other groups of immigrants were arriving, as the Portuguese, Poles, Spaniards, Ukrainians, Arabs, Jews, Russians, British, among others, forming our present society.

Distribution of the population living in Maringá according to skin color:

• Whites: 76.5%
• Mulatto or black: 19.6%
• Asian, native and others: 3.9%

Religion

Maringá is a city where the majority people are Catholic, but there are other religious denominations in the city, such as Baptists, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, Spiritualists, and others. Although Catholics are the majority, they have remained stagnant, while Protestants have grown 2.41% and the number of people lacking religion fell to 2.03%.

• Catholics: 73.72%
• Protestants: 21.15%
• Muslims, Buddhists, Spiritualists, Atheists and others: 5.13%.

Source: Observatório das Metrópoles UFRJ.

Soccer

Maringá currently has two professional football clubs, Grêmio Maringá and the Alvorada Clube (in English: Dawn Club), both in the 2nd division of the Paranaense Championship. Both play their games at the Stadium Willie Davids, with a capacity up to 21,600 fans. The most traditional club is Grêmio Maringá, who has won three State Championships, and has been four times with the vice-championship. Meanwhile, Alvorada never won titles.

Universities

UEM - Universidade Estadual de Maringá

• UEM the only public university of Maringa (in Portuguese)

CESUMAR - Centro de Estudos Superiores de Maringá called Centro Universitario de Maringá

• Cesumar one of the private faculties in Maringá (in Portuguese)

PUC - Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Paraná - Campus Maringá

Minority languages

German;
English;
Japanese;
Italian;
Spanish;
Russian;
Arabic;
Polish;
French;
Chinese;
others...

External links

• Official homepage (in Portuguese)
• Everything about Maringá (in Portuguese, English, French, Italian and Spanish)
• some pictures can be found here (in Portuguese)
• everything about Maringá (in Portuguese)