Brazil achieves its best indicators of population well-being in past 30 years

Per capita household income in Brazil had increased by approximately 70 per cent by 2025 compared with 1995, according to a technical report by the Institute for Applied Economic Research, based on data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. This was reported by Agência Brasil.

Over the same period, the Gini coefficient, which shows the degree of inequality in income distribution among the population, fell by almost 18 per cent, while the level of extreme poverty amounted to less than 5 per cent.

It is noted that the increase in citizens’ well-being has not been smooth. Surges were observed from 2003 to 2014 and in 2021–2024. Beginning in 2021, for three consecutive years average income rose by more than 25 per cent in real terms. Researchers associate this with a rapidly developing labour market and the expansion of the social benefits system, which accounted for almost half of the reduction in inequality. As a result, 2024 saw the lowest poverty level ever recorded in the country.

“Inequality must be addressed through all measures of public policy. Not only through a more efficient distribution of social spending in favour of the poorest, but also through a fairer distribution of taxes. It is important to increase the labour productivity of the poorest,” noted Marcos Dantas Hecksher, one of the authors of the report.

The study emphasises that, although more than 60 per cent of the reduction in extreme poverty in 2021–2024 was due to improvements in income distribution, the labour market has become increasingly decisive during this period and will remain so in the years ahead.

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