The city of São José dos Campos lies in the Paraíba River Valley, São Paulo State, besides the Dutra highway which connects the two biggest Brazilian cities São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the Latin America economic development poles.
The access to São Paulo can be made by the Ayrton Senna and the Carvalho Pinto or Dutra highways. The access to Rio de Janeiro is either made by Dutra. The respective driving distances are about 90 km and 320 km.
São José dos Campos has a privileged location. It is only 80 km far from Campos de Jordão and Santo Antonio do Pinhal, tourist cities on the Serra da Mantiqueira. The access is made by Dutra highway and Floriano Rodrigues Pinheiro road. It is possible to arrive to the South of Minas Gerais State by the same highway.
It is also close to the North Coast (Caraguatatuba, Ubatuba and São Sebastião cities) at about 84 km. The access is through the Tamoios road (SP-99). From Caraguatatuba it is possible to arrive to Ubatuba (55 km/the Rio-Santos road) and to São Sebastião (25 km).
The county total area is 1.102 km2. Moreover around 60% of its total area are Environmental Preservation Areas.
Its population is around 500.000 inhabitants. The annual growth rate is around 1,89%; 95,1% of this population live in the urban area and 4,9% live in the countryside.
According to the Municipal Human Development Index from the United Nations, São José dos Campos is among 25 Brazilian cities which has better conditions of life. It is famous for its technological and industrial park, its municipal parks and its sustainable development.
São José dos Campos is the most important economical and industrial city of this region and, its industrial park stands out in the Brazilian scenery for presenting three remarkable companies segments: the automotive, the telecommunications and aerospace and, the defense. It is composed by 720 companies distributed in 677 small companies with more than 90 employees each, 28 medium companies with more than 450 employees and 15 big companies with more than 1000 employees.
Trade and services sectors also followed the industrial development of this city. Nowadays, São José dos Campos stands out as a Business and Services Regional Center in the Paraíba River Valley, North Coast of São Paulo State and South of Minas Gerais State attending about 2 million inhabitants.
There are five malls such as Center Vale Shopping, Shopping Colinas, Vale Desconto Shopping, Shopping Centro and Shopping Esplanada and, many important stores and supermarkets as Wal Mart, Carrefour, Madeirense, Makro and Ciro.