Zipf law for Brazilian cities

Newton J. Moura and Marcelo Ribeiro

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2006, vol. 367, issue C, 441-448

Abstract: This work studies the Zipf law for cities in Brazil. Data from censuses of 1970, 1980, 1991 and 2000 were used to select a sample containing only cities with 30,000 inhabitants or more. The results show that the population distribution in Brazilian cities does follow a power-law similar to the ones found in other countries. Estimates of the power-law exponent were found to be 2.22±0.34 for the 1970 and 1980 censuses, and 2.26±0.11 for censuses of 1991 and 2000. More accurate results were obtained with the maximum likelihood estimator, showing an exponent equal to 2.41 for 1970 and 2.36 for the other 3 years.

Keywords: Complex systems; Power-laws; Population of cities; Fractals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:367:y:2006:i:c:p:441-448

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2005.11.038

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