Nearly a third of Brazilians have less than half the minimum wage to spend the month, says FGV | Rio de Janeiro

Nearly a third of Brazilians have less than half the minimum wage to spend the month. This is what New poverty mapreleased this Wednesday (29) by Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV).

According to the foundation, the number of people with a per capita household income of R$497 per month was R$62.9 million in 2021, about 29.6% of the country’s total population. The data corresponds to 9.6 million more than in 2019 – the number of new poor people emerging during the pandemic is close to the size of Portugal.

“The poverty rate in Brazil has never been higher than in 2021, since the start of the historic PNADC series [Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua] In 2012, they make up a lost decade,” explains economist Marcelo Neri, director of FGV Social.

By union unit, Santa Catarina (10.16%) has the lowest poverty rate in 2021. Maranhão (57.90%) has the highest percentage of poor people.

The change in poverty from 2019 to 2021 by union unit in percentage points in the epidemic reveals that the largest increase occurred in Pernambuco (8.14 percentage points), and the only decrease in poverty in the period was observed in Tocantins (0.95 percentage points) and Piauí (0.03 percentage points) .

The purpose of the survey, according to the FGV, is to assess the spatial evolution of poverty in recent years. The research methodology considered partial data from the annual continuous PNAD of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (BIGE).IBGE).

In addition to data by union unit, results are also available by socioeconomic classes. Click here to review the new poverty map.