Jataí

Jataí is a municipality in the south of Goiás state, Brazil, with a 2022 census population of 105,729 spread over about 7,174 square kilometres. It sits in the southwest of the state at the confluence of the São Pedro and Claro rivers, roughly 316 kilometres from the state capital Goiânia, and belongs to the Southwest Goiás microregion. Its history is part of the last phase of cattle expansion in southwest Goiás: José Manoel Vilela of Minas Gerais set up a ranch on the Rio Claro in 1836, a settlement called Paraíso grew up around it, a district was formed in 1864, the municipality of Paraíso was created in 1882, and the name changed to Jataí in 1885. Agriculture, mainly soybeans, corn and rice, together with cattle, poultry and pigs, supports the economy, and the town hosts a campus of the Federal University of Goiás.