Between housing and production: socioeconomic asymmetries in the metropolitan region surrounding the Federal District (2022–2023)

Abstract

The Metropolitan Region of the Federal District Surroundings (RME), established by Goiás State Complementary Law No. 181/2023, comprises eleven municipalities in the state of Goiás. This article examines the relationship between population concentration and municipal economic output in the RME, using population data from the 2022 Demographic Census and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for municipalities from 2023. The objective is to identify territorial disparities without reducing the region to a homogeneous interpretation as a residential periphery. The study is quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional. In addition to the relative shares of population, GDP, and GDP per capita, this study proposes the Relative Economic Intensity Index (IIER), defined as the ratio of a municipality’s share of regional GDP to its share of the population. The index is a normalization of GDP per capita around the regional average and does not constitute a measure of labor productivity, income, or well-being. The results show significant heterogeneity: Cristalina accounts for 5.01% of the population and 19.18% of GDP, while Águas Lindas de Goiás accounts for 18.13% of the population and 10.29% of GDP. Luziânia, Cristalina, and Formosa together account for 53.40% of regional GDP and 31.12% of the population. It can be concluded that the RME constitutes a distinct economic system in which residential, productive, and regional coordination functions coexist, requiring evidence-based inter-federative governance, mobility coordination and economic diversification