Maringá () is a municipality in southern Brazil founded on 10 May 1947 as a planned urban area. It is the third largest city in the state of Paraná, with 385,753 inhabitants in the city proper, and 764,906 in the metropolitan area (IBGE 2013). Located in northwestern Paraná, and crossed by the Tropic of Capricorn, it is a regional centre for commerce, services, agro-industries, and universities, including the State University of Maringá.
History
Toponymy
Maringá takes its name from a song by Joubert de Carvalho in honour of his great love, Maria do Ingá, later shortened to Maringá. As a result, the city is nicknamed "Song City". At the time the settlement was established, the song was very popular in the media.
Settlement
In 1925, the Northern Paraná Land Company was established in London, England and was responsible for the management of more than in the northern part of the State, which today contains some of the largest cities in Paraná.
The region's fertile land encouraged São Paulo colonists to move in and acquire new areas for production of coffee beans, an important product for exportation. The northern region of Paraná encloses nearly 100 thousand km2. It is watered by the Rivers Paranapanema, Paraná, Ivaí and Piquiri. 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 received the status of municipality on 14 November 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 and the city was planned as a "garden city" from the beginning.
Demography
Ethnicity
The region of Maringá has been greatly influenced by Japanese immigrants, alongside Italian and German immigrants. Portuguese descendants also have a considerable presence in the city. Other prevalent ethnic groups are African and Amerindian descendants, Poles, Spaniards, Ukrainians, Arabs, Jews, Russians, and a very small group of British descendants.
Distribution of the population living in Maringá according to race or skin color:
Source: Census 2012
People born in Maringá
Sônia Braga - Actress
Celso Portiolli :pt:Celso Portiolli - TV host
Fernanda Machado :pt:Fernanda Machado - Actress
Helena Louro - Actress
Felipe Drugovich - Fia Formula 2 champion racing driver
Religion
Roman Catholicism is the single largest religious denomination in the city; other major denominations include the various branches of Protestantism, and also Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, Spiritism, among others. Roman Catholics are the majority and have remained constant, while Protestants have grown 2.41%, and those who do not profess a religion have dropped to 2.03%. Roman Catholicism: 73.72% Protestantism: 21.15% Islam, Buddhism, Spiritism, Atheism and others: 5.13%.
Source: Observatório das Metrópoles UFRJ.
Geography
Climate
Maringá experiences a tropical climate bordering on a humid subtropical climate. It has well distributed rainfall, where the average temperature of the coldest month is around 17.8 °C (64 °F) and average annual temperatures around 21.95 °C (71.51 °F). Because of its location, situated in southern Brazil and crossed by the Tropic of Capricorn, the region of Maringá is influenced by several macro-climatic factors caused by 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 relatively common, and frosts can occur.
Flora
Maringá has a high rate of concentration of green area per capita, there are 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.
Throughout the year it is possible to observe its tree-lined streets that produce a good air to breathe, but especially in the passage from winter to spring, many trees explode in flowers.
Maringá has one of the highest concentration rates of green area, per inhabitant, 90 bushels of native forest in 17 forests.