Furniture industry and demographic dynamics of Ubá, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

The present study seeks to relate the influence of the main economic activities developed in the city of Ubá-MG to its demographic dynamics, from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twenty-first century, highlighting the role played by the furniture industry. It also aims to show the consequences of urban population growth in the city landscape, transformed throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. For this, we reviewed the literature on the historical evolution of Ubá, relating it to the population data obtained from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística and Ipeadata website. The substitution of subsistence farming practices for coffee and later tobacco production attached great importance to municipal development. However, the furniture industry has become and continues to be the major activity in Ubá, both economically and demographically. It also had a great impact on the modification of the urban landscape in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.