[5] The municipality contains part of the Central Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest Mosaic of conservation units, created in 2006.

[6] It also holds part of the União Biological Reserve, home to a population of endangered golden lion tamarin.

The city has an expatriate community (mainly English speakers) of around 1000 people[citation needed] - many of whom are connected directly or indirectly to the oil and gas industry.

The city has the biggest tax generation of new ranks of work of the interior of the state, according to research conducted for the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan): 13.2% to the year.

Surveys conducted in past years for IBGE demonstrated that the Internal Gross Product (in Portuguese, Produto Interno Bruto - PIB) per capita of the city in 2007 is R$37,667.00 per year, 200% greater than the national average- and the average salary is 8.2 times the minimum salary, making Macaé the city with the highest wages in the Rio de Janeiro State.

Also, there are different institutions of higher education, which include: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Faculdade Miguel Ângelo da Silva Santos (FEMASS), Faculdade Estácio de Sá - Macaé.