Title not available in English

Abstract

This study shows initially the important contribution made by the intermediate-sized cities in the demographic growth dynamics and in the decentralization of the urban population in the period 1970/91 in Brazil. Later on, when an analysis of a group of urban centers considered as medium-sized cities in the 70`s is made, a conclusion is reached that these cities exhibited a larger growth rate than those shown by their subordinated cities in the hierarchy of urban centers, what means that centripetal economic forces were stronger that the centrifugal ones in the field of forces formed by each the medium-sized city (the nucleus) and its subordinated cities (their satellites). Additionally, this paper also shows that: a) in general, it can be accepted the association between the urbanization and industrialization phenomena; and b) the system of medium-sized cities played an important role by restraining the process of industrial decentralization in Brazil, putting limits to its territorial sprawl. Finally, using the data taken from the 1996 Population Count made public recently, this study finds that the metropolitan regions recovered their former demographic performance by showing larger population growth rates than the country as a whole, due basically to the “peripherization” of the national metropolises.