HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT FOR BRAZIL - 1996

 

The Report describes what happened in Brazil during the last decades, when the three variables comprising the Human Development Index, life expectancy, schooling and per capita income improved. The interruption of the economic growth curve in the 1980s caused the increase of inequality and poverty, accentuating the historical tendency towards the concentration of income.

Thus, Brazil registered in the beginning of the decade one of the biggest indices of inequality in the world. There would not be much difference between Brazil and countries such as Mexico, Argentina and the United States, for instance, if one compares only the indices that evaluate the differences between the strata of the population of medium and low income. The inequality of income in Brazil is concentrated basically in the higher strata of the distribution. Therefore if the incomes of the most richest 10% of the various countries were not taken into consideration, a degree of similar inequality would be registered in Latin America and the United States.

The difference is in the higher stratum, that of the "rich". The richest 20% of the population retains 65% of the total income and the poorest 50% with 12%. (In 1960 this relationship was 54% against 18%.) The average income of the richest 10% is nearly 30 times greater than that of the average income of the poorest 40%, as against 10 times in Argentina, 5 times in France and Germany, 4 times in Holland, 25 times in Peru and 13 in Costa Rica (see Graph 2.1 attached). The fraction of the income of the richest 20% grew by 11 points between 1960 and 1990, while that of the poorest 50% fell 6 points and that of the intermediate classes remained almost without change.

The Report shows also the whereabouts of the Brazilians poor, who numbered 42 million in 1990 (30% of the population). A family is considered poor by the Report when its per capita income is situated below the poverty line—that is, not sufficient to acquire the necessary goods for the adequate sustenance of its members. The number of indigents, that is, of the poor whose income is insufficient to attend even to their feeding needs, is substantially lower.

5% of the poor are in the North, 45% in the Northeast, 34% in the Southeast, 10% in the South, and 6% in the Centre-West.

In the North, the poor are 43% of the total population; in the Northeast, 46%; in the Southeast, 23%; in the South, 20%; and in the Centre-West, 25.

In the metropolitan regions, the poor comprise 29% of the population, in the non-metropolitan urban areas, 27%; in the rural areas, 39%. In São Paulo the poor correspond to 22% of the metropolitan population. A tendency has been noted of the metropolisation of poverty, as during 1981 there were 26% of the poor in these areas, as against 29% in 1990.

In proportionate terms, São Paulo is one of the States with less poor (17% of its population), and also of Santa Catarina (14%). The greatest proportion is in Piauí (59%) and in Ceará (52%).

In absolute terms, however, it is São Paulo that has more of the poor (5.1 million) and also Bahia (4.9 million).

Still in absolute numbers, the units in a better situation are the Federal District (0.3 million) and Mato Grosso do Sul (0.4 million). In Piauí there are l.5 million poor, 72% of whom are in the rural zone. In Ceará, the figure is 3.3 million.

In reality, there are two poles of poverty: the Northeast, especially in the rural areas, and in the metropolitan areas, including those of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.