São Paulo – The first analyses of the 2007 National Survey by Household Sampling (Pnad-2007) disclosed yesterday (22) by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), at its Rio de Janeiro office, show that 13.8 million Brazilians changed social class between 2001 and 2007.
The figures are included in Presidential Statement number 9, “Pnad-2007: First Analyses" volume 1. The document was presented by researchers Ricardo Paes de Barros and Ricardo Amorim. The president at Ipea, Márcio Pochmann, also participated in the meeting. "The availability of information regarding inequality in income distribution in recent decades allows not only for the analysis of the magnitude of inequality in the country today, but also of how it has evolved over time," pointed out Pochmann.
When classifying the Brazilian population into three classes of income, over 10 million people left the level of the poorest third (which has family income of up to 545.66 Brazilian reals – US$ 303,33) and entered the intermediary class (with family income of up to 1,350.82 reals – US$ 750.91). And 3.6 million moved from the intermediary to the higher income range, with family income of over 1,350.82 reals.
Still according to the study, the level of inequality of income in the country has dropped continuously this century, falling 7%, from 0.593 in 2001 to 0.552 in 2007. This corresponds to an average annual rate of reduction of 1.2%.
However, these moments were not homogenous throughout the country, revealing that, despite the advances, regional inequalities are still significant. The Northeast, for example, currently has 49% of its population living with family income of less than 545.66 reals, or 25.3 million Brazilians.
Three more volumes about the Pnad should be presented over the next three weeks. On September 30th, the topics to be discussed should be "Labour Market Tendencies", "Infant Labour" and "Social Security". October 7th will be the turn of "Population, Family and Aging", "Gender" and "Basic Sanitation and Habitation", and on October 14th, "Youth", "Ethnicity" and "Education".
*Translated by Mark Ament