Blog

Full results of the Brazilian Census undertaken in quarter 3 of 2010 revealed a range of statistics that, whilst several debate are questionable in terms of real time accuracy, provide some broad based indications for the future of business and real estate in the country:

• 60.7% of the population live in households with a monthly income of less than the minimum salary (R$ 510) whilst one in seven households have a per capita income of less than one quarter of the same (R$ 127.50).  However, clear indications were made of improvements to income levels with president of the IBGE Eduardo Nunes stating that: ‘the contingent of Brazilians earning less than half of the minimum salary today is much less than it was in 2000.’  It has also been debated that many people, particularly within low income groups, receive their wages informally (such as cash in hand) in order to avoid tax and other obligations (see this article on Brazil’s informal economy);
• The highest levels of internal migration were witnessed in the north and centre west of the country – in order: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Roraima and Tocantins.  The north east and the south east migration levels, whilst seeing increases, were below the national average (at 1.7%).  According to Nunes: ‘In 1980, the North and Midwest together had 11.4% of the inhabitants of the country which grew to 15.7% last year. The South fell from 16% to 14.4%.  Migration no longer occurs toward the big cities but, on average, towards regions that are new the economic poles.’
• Population statistics, as demonstrated in the graph below, showed the number of children between the ages of 0 and 4 years old is decreasing from boys representing 5.5% and girls 5.7% in 1991 to 3.7% and 3.6% respectively in 2010.  Conversely, the number of people in the 65-69 age group increased from 4.8% in 1991 to 7.4% in 2010;

• The number of privately occupied housing increased from 45 million in 2000 to 56.5 million in 2010.  The largest increases were observed North with 2.09% and the Midwest with 1.91%. The Southeast has kept the lead, increasing from 20.3 million to 24.8 million occupied households between the same period – representing an increase of 22.2%;
• The average number of people per household dropped from 4.2 % in 1991 to 3.8% in 2000 and 3.3% in 2010;
• Illiteracy levels decreased from 13.6% in 2000 to 9.6% in 2010.  The North East had the highest level of illiteracy with 19.1% in 2010 (compared to 28.2% in 2000);
• The number of private houses with a sewage disposal system or septic tank increased from 62.2% in 2000 to 67.1% in 2010;
• Whilst central São Paulo’s population has increased 15.4% between 2000 and 2010 (63,774 inhabitants), the statistics demonstrated that there were 22,087 empty properties with 712,000 families living in irregular housing, favelas (urban slums) and tenements;
• Rio de Janeiro had the highest concentration of favelas with prominent communities including Rocinha with over 130,000 inhabitants and Alemão with over 89,900.

For detailed and regularly updated statistics on Brazil – including GDP figures, local enterprise numbers, salary / per capita income levels, gini coefficients, human development index ratings and more – please see our state guide section, accessible via our home page.