A new report highlights Brazil’s declining extreme poverty rate but underscores persistent inequality across regions and demographics
The number of Brazilians living in extreme poverty dropped by 40 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a new report. While these findings echo a previous study by the think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas, the latest report offers a deeper analysis of Brazil’s social indicators and the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
In June, Fundação Getulio Vargas reported a 50 percent decline in extreme poverty between 2021 and 2023, using the World Bank’s threshold that defines extreme poverty as living on less than USD 2.15 per day, adjusted for purchasing power parity.
The new study, commissioned by the Brazilian Observatory for Inequality and compiled by researchers at the Cebrap think tank, uses the federal government’s threshold of a monthly per capita income of BRL 105 (USD 18 today). Both studies, drawing from data provided by federal statistics agency IBGE, reach a similar conclusion: extreme poverty has declined significantly, largely due to the expanded Bolsa Família cash transfer program.