Brazil in numbers (according to the 2000 census)

Hello,

I have compiled some useful Brazilian population statistics from the
2000 Census website at http://www.ibge.gov.br and decided to reproduce
them below for your reference. The figures I am quoting give readers a
fairly accurate picture of Brazil as a developing (middle-income)
country with great inequality in terms of income and access to
education.

Given that different parts of Brazil have different levels of
socio-economic development, I broke down most of the data by regions
(North, Northeast, Southeast, South, and Center-West). Hopefully, the
regional data will be useful to travelers as they may get a better
appreciation of what to expect in each part of the country that they
visit/plan to visit. Most of the data is given in terms of percentages
rounded to the second decimal digit, so the totals do not necessarily
add up to 100. For further information, please visit the Census site.

Note: Aggregate figures for the Southeastern region include the state
of Sao Paulo, which is usually classified in Brazil as part of the
Southeast. However, since Sao Paulo is actually a transition state
between the Southeast and the South, I decided sometimes to show also
the data for the state of Sao Paulo alone, in addition to the aggregate
figures for the Southeast.


Total Population (as of 2000)

Brazil 169,872,856


Table I: Population Distribution by Regions (%)


North 7.60
Northeast 28.13
Southeast 42.64
South 14.78
Center-West 6.90


Table II: Population Distribution by Race (%) (*)(**)


White Brown Black Asian Amerindian N/A

Brazil 53.75 38.45 6.21 0.45 0.43 0.7


North 28.01 63.97 4.97 0.23 1.65 1.17
Northeast 32.94 58.02 7.70 0.14 0.36 0.84
Southeast 62.35 29.50 6.56 0.71 0.22 0.65
South 83.60 11.49 3.70 0.77 0.34 0.41
Center-West 49.73 43.68 4.62 0.40 0.90 0.68

Sao Paulo state 70.70 22.83 4.39 1.23 0.17 0.66


(*) Based on self-identification subject to cultural bias, so take it
with a grain of salt (the figures for the South are fairly accurate
though; elsewhere the white population is probably overstated).

(**) The Brazilian census uses 5 racial categories: "branco" (white),
"pardo" (brown), "preto" (black), "amarelo" (Asian), and "indigena"
(Amerindian). N/A on the table indicates "did not know/refused to
respond".


Table III: Education ( % of the population age 10 or over by number of
years of schooling)(*)


1 1-3 4-7 8-10 11-14 =15 N/A

Brazil 10.95 18.88 34.30 15.36 15.31 4.32 0.88

North 14.50 24.74 32.37 13.54 11.97 1.89 1.01
Northeast 18.85 26.33 29.10 10.78 11.13 2.25 1.55
Southeast 7.17 14.84 35.82 17.69 18.16 5.84 0.48
South 6.53 14.99 39.24 17.64 16.01 4.73 0.86
West 9.49 17.32 36.53 15.79 15.73 4.50 0.63

Sao Paulo 6.18 13.31 35.55 18.66 19.42 6.46 0.42


(*) Note that the figures above are considerably lower than those for
countries with the same level of GDP per capita as Brazil, suggesting
that economic/industrial development in that country was not
accompanied by social investment, particularly in public education.
Keep in mind though that schooling is usually a lagging indicator that
moves fairly slowly. Considering that Brazil achieved at least
universal primary schooling in the 1990s, the figures above are likely
to improve considerably over the next decade, particularly in the lower
brackets (i.e., less than 8 years of schooling).


Table IV: Literacy Rate (%) for people age FIVE or older, broken down
by region and by race. (*)


Whites Browns Blacks All Races

Brazil 89.13 78.91 76.77 84.30

North 84.19 78.40 69.69 79.08
Notheast 78.12 70.95 65.17 72.82
Southeast 91.89 86.86 84.83 89.93
South 91.68 84.52 83.99 90.52
Center-West 90.26 85.97 79.75 87.68

(*) Please note the gap between the literacy rate for self-declared
whites and self-declared
browns/blacks. Also note the gap between the figures for the
North/Northeast and the Center-South.


Table V: Distribution of the population by individual monthly income
measured in number of Brazilian monthly minimum wages (% of the
population age TEN or over, employed at the time of the survey) (*)(**)


=1 1-2 2-3 3-5 5-10 10-20 =20 No income

Brazil 23.35 25.46 12.60 12.76 11.08 4.63 2.48 7.64

North 28.61 26.91 9.84 9.63 7.66 3.09 1.50 12.75
Northeast 40.49 22.21 6.81 6.49 5.07 2.18 1.14 15.61
Southeast 15.50 25.56 15.72 16.26 14.68 6.14 3.32 2.83
South 17.31 27.45 14.03 14.15 11.87 4.67 2.37 0.81
West 21.44 30.06 12.66 12.67 11.17 5.12 3.17 2.45

S.Paulo 9.50 22.45 18.15 19.13 17.68 7.38 4.05 1.67

(*) The column "employed people with no monthly income" includes the
category popularly referred to as "slave labor".

(**) Please note again the gap between the North/Northeast and the
South/Southeast, especially Sao Paulo state. In particular, note that
in the poverty-stricken Northeast (a popular destination for tourists),
roughly 45 % of the population age 10 or older either has no monthly
income or receives less than one Brazilian minimum wage per month.

Table VI: Distribution of the population by religion (*)


% total Brazilian population


Roman Catholic 73.57
Evangelical Protestant 15.41
Atheist/No Religion 7.35
Oriental Religions 2.20
Afro-Brazilian/Spiritism 1.58
Jewish 0.05

Others 1.31
Unknown/Undetermined 0.03


(*) Please note that Brazil has a much lower percentage of
self-declared Roman Catholics than other countries in Latin America and
that the number of Roman Catholics as percentage of the total
population continues to decline as we speak.