Brasília – Currently, more than half the Brazilian population (53%) is middle-class, at a total of 104 million Brazilians. In the last ten years, 35 million Brazilians joined the middle class. The figures were released this Thursday (20th) by the Secretariat for Strategic Affairs (SAE) of the Presidency of the Republic in the survey Vozes da Classe Média (Voices of the Middle Class).
The survey considers middle-class those in families with monthly per capita incomes ranging from R$ 291 to R$ 1,019, and who are unlikely to become poor in the near future.
According to the survey, the expansion of the middle class resulted from the country’s growth process, coupled with inequality reduction. It is estimated that should the rate of growth and trend of decline in inequality seen in the last ten years be maintained, then the middle class will comprise 57% of the Brazilian population by 2022.
SAE minister Moreira Franco stressed the importance of the growth of the middle class in propelling the country’s economy, because this share of the population accounts for 38% of income and family consumption. “The Brazilian middle class will generate a turnover of approximately R$ 1 trillion in 2012,” estimated Renato Meirelles, of the Data Popular research institute, which participated in the survey.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
