Minas Gerais is a state in the north of
Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by
gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city,
Belo Horizonte, is a major urban and finance center in Latin America, and is the sixth largest municipality in Brazil, after the cities of
São Paulo,
Rio de Janeiro,
Salvador,
Brasilia and
Fortaleza, but its
metropolitan area is the third largest in Brazil with just over 5,500,000 inhabitants, after those of
São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of presidents of Brazil; Brazil's current president,
Dilma Rousseff, born in Belo Horizonte, is one of them.