Claraval

[1] The city belongs to the meso-region of Sul e Sudoeste de Minas and to the micro-region of Passos.

The origin of the toponym was an homage (Claraval being the Portuguese for Clairvaux) paid to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Prior of the French mother house of the Cistercians, since the year of the administrative emancipation of the town coincided with the eight hundredth anniversary of the saint's death.

[4] The city center of Claraval is located at an elevation of 745 meters in a fertile region on the state boundary with São Paulo.

The highest ranking municipality in Minas Gerais in 2000 was Poços de Caldas with 0.841, while the lowest was Setubinha with 0.568.

In more recent statistics (considering 5,507 municipalities) Manari in the state of Pernambuco has the lowest rating in the country—0,467—putting it in last place.