Extreme poverty on the rise in Brazil

The number of people living in extreme poverty in Brazil rose from 6.6 percent of the population in 2016 to 7,4 percent in 2017—13.5 million to 15.2 million.

The World Bank describes as extremely poor those with a daily income of less than $1.90. The increase in this percentage was observed across Brazil, except for the North, where the rate held steady, as per data from the country’s statistics agency IBGE.

The figures can be found in a study dubbed Síntese dos Indicadores Sociais 2018 (“Synthesis of Social Indicators 2018”), published today (Dec. 5) by IBGE, which describes the survey as “a set of data on the country’s social reality.”

The report also shows a growth in the proportion of people below the so-called income line. In 2017, this number stood at 26.5 percent, compared to 25.7 percent the year before. The percentages indicate a change from 52.8 million to 54.8 million people. According to the definition by the World Bank, these are the people with an income of up to $5.50 a day. Most of these people—over 25 million—were in the Northeast.

An expansion was also observed among children and adolescents (aged up to 14) living with an income of up to $5.50 a day—from 42.9 to 43.4 percent in the period.

Living conditions

The survey found that, in 2017, some 27 million people (13 percent of the population) lived in households with at least one of the four items rated as poor: physical characteristics, occupancy conditions, access to services, and goods in the household. Excessive household occupancy—over three individuals per bedroom—affected the largest number of people: 12.2 million people, 5.9 percent of the country’s population.

In the same year, ten percent of the Brazilian population lived in households with neither direct nor indirect waste collection, and 15.1 percent lived in households with no water supply from a network.