At the lowest level since 2012, the population in poverty in the country fell from 27.3% to 23.1%, according to the Social Indicators Synthesis survey
More than 8.6 million Brazilians left the line in 2024. This socioeconomic performance caused the proportion of the population in poverty to fall from 27.3% in 2023 to 23.1%. It is the lowest level ever recorded since 2012, when the historical series of
In 2024, Brazil had 48.9 million people living on less than US$6.85 per day, which is equivalent to around R$694, in values corrected for the year. This is the limit that the World Bank defines as the poverty line. In 2023, the number in poverty was 57.6 million Brazilians.
The data is part of the Social Indicators Summary survey, released this Wednesday (3).
The indicators show the third year in a row with a reduction in the number and proportion of poor people, marking a post-covid-19 pandemic recovery, triggered in 2020.
Check out the behavior of poverty in the country:
2012: 68.4 million
2019: 67.5 million (last year before the pandemic)
2020: 64.7 million
2021: 77 million
2022: 66.4 million
2023: 57.6 million
2024: 48.9 million
In 2012, the proportion of people below the poverty line was 34.7%. In 2019 it reached 32.6%. In the first year of the pandemic (2020) it was reduced to 31.1% and reached the highest point in the series in 2021, at 36.8%. Since then, it has seen years of decline, going from 31.6% in 2022 to 23.1% last year.
Work and income transfer
IBGE researcher André Geraldo de Moraes Simões, responsible for the study, explains that in 2020, the year the pandemic broke out, poverty was reduced due to emergency assistance programs, such as Emergency Aid, paid by the federal government.
“These benefits returned in April 2021, but with lower values and restricted access by the public, and the job market was still fragile, so poverty rose,” he states. Simões adds that, from 2022, the job market began to heat up again, accompanied by assistance programs with higher values, factors that allowed socioeconomic advancement.
“Both the booming job market and the income transfer benefits, mainly Bolsa Família and Auxílio Brasil, which gained greater values and expanded the group of the population that received”, he points out.
In the second half of 2022, the Auxílio Brasil program started paying R$600. In 2023, the program was renamed Bolsa Família.
Extreme poverty
In the last year, Brazil also experienced a reduction in extreme poverty, people living on an income of up to US$2.15 per day, around R$218 per month in values corrected for last year. From 2023 to 2024, this contingent increased from 9.3 million to 7.4 million, that is, 1.9 million people left the condition. This evolution caused the proportion of the population in extreme poverty to fall from 4.4% to 3.5%, the lowest ever recorded.
In 2012, when the historical series began, it was 6.6%. In 2021, the level reached 9% (18.9 million people).
Regional inequality
The IBGE numbers make regional inequality clear. Both poverty and extreme poverty in the North and Northeast exceed the national rate.
Poverty
Northeast: 39.4%
Norte: 35,9%
Brazil: 23.1%
Southeast: 15.6%
Midwest: 15.4%
On: 11.2%
Extreme poverty
Northeast: 6.5%
Norte: 4,6%
Brazil: 3.5%
Southeast: 2.3%
Midwest: 1.6%
On: 1.5%
“These are the most vulnerable regions in the country, and this also ends up being reflected in the job market”, says André Simões. Another demonstrated inequality is racial. In the white population, 15.1% were poor, while 2.2% were in extreme poverty.
Among black people, poverty reached 25.8%, and extreme poverty reached 3.9%. In the brown population, the shares were 29.8% and 4.5%, respectively.
Minor Gini since 2012
The Synthesis of Social Indicators updated the so-called Gini Index, which assesses income inequality. The index goes from 0 to 1 – the higher it is, the worse the inequality. In 2024, the Gini Index reached 0.504, the lowest value in the series starting in 2012. In 2023, it was 0.517.
To measure the impact of social programs on reducing inequality, IBGE presented a Gini calculation if there was no such assistance policy.
The study found that the indicator would be 0.542 if there were no income transfer programs, such as and Continuous Payment Benefit (BPC – one minimum wage per month for elderly people aged 65 or over or for people with disabilities of any age).
Another hypothetical exercise carried out by the researchers was about the condition of people aged 60 or over if there were no social security benefits. Extreme poverty among the elderly would increase from 1.9% to 35.4%, the institute projects. Poverty would rise from 8.3% to 52.3%.
The survey also shows that poverty was greater among informal workers. Among those employed without a formal contract, it was one in five (20.4%). Among employees with a formal contract, the proportion was 6.7%.
What is the IBGE Summary of Social Indicators?
This morning, IBGE released the Synthesis of Social Indicators: An analysis of the living conditions of the Brazilian population 2024. The study presents different indicators on the living conditions of the Brazilian population, accompanied by comments that highlight, for each dimension of analysis, the characteristics observed in different population strata. The information illustrates the heterogeneity of society from the perspective of social inequalities and, in this edition, is organized into five chapters: Economic structure and labor market, Standard of living and income distribution, Education, Health Conditions and Living conditions according to geographic strata.
*With Agência Brasil
