In Brazil's 2022 census, which federal unit was most populous?

São Paulo was Brazil’s most populous federal unit in the 2022 census.

Brazil’s 13th national census, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, counted 44,411,238 people in São Paulo state. That was 21.87% of Brazil’s total population of 203,080,756, making São Paulo far larger than any other state or the Federal District.

Minas Gerais ranked second with 20,539,989 residents, followed by Rio de Janeiro with 16,055,174 and Bahia with 14,141,626. São Paulo’s lead is therefore not a close contest: its population exceeded Minas Gerais’s by more than 23.8 million people.

This question asks for a federal unit, not a city. São Paulo state includes the enormous São Paulo metropolitan area as well as many other municipalities; the city itself is only one part of the state total. The census was originally planned for 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, budget problems and legal pressure to complete it.