Government Census Reveals Hardship of Life in Brazil's Favelas

11/07/2013 - 08h37

In spite of the growth of Brazil's much-vaunted "Class C" - Brazil's new middle class, which in recent years has enjoyed higher incomes and greater access to goods and credit - a 2010 government census published on Wednesday has revealed the extent to which a gulf still exists between the residents of the favelas and those living in other urban areas.

According to the census, carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, in its Portuguese acronym), those living in favelas had lower incomes, were less well-educated, and were more prone to informality in the labor market. They were also less likely to own consumer goods such as cars and computers.

It is in education where the division was most stark. While 14.7% of the population living in other areas had completed a course of higher education, among those living in favelas and other forms of substandard housing the figure was just 1.6%.

Income disparities were also obvious. 31.6% of those living in poor communities had a per capita family income of less than half the minimum wage, compared to 13.8% in other areas. Informal work was also more common. 27.8% of favela residents had worked without being registered. For those living outside these communities, the figure is 20.5%.

According to the census, 11.4 million people were living in favelas in Brazil in 2010. They were spread across 6,329 communities, located in 232 cities. The IBGE affirms that favelas remain a typically metropolitan phenomenon.

The country's five largest metropolitan regions accounted for 59.3% of those living in favelas. Of these, 18.9% were living in Greater São Paulo and 14.9% in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. The other three metropolitan regions comprising the remainder of this figure were Belém, Salvador and Recife.

However, it was in the southeast region (encompassing the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo) in which the majority (55.5%) of the country's 6,300 favelas were found.

Across the country, the majority of the favelas are located on flat terrain (52.5%), while 19.7% of the favelas are built upon steep slopes. In the summer rainy season this leads to landslides, frequently resulting in casualties.

For Rute Imanishi, an IBGE expert, the favelas were "the only option" for families of low incomes wanting access to public services of higher quality (especially health and education), whilst also wanting to live close to their places of work, given the high cost of living in some of the country's largest cities.

"Life in cities like Rio and São Paulo is very expensive," she says. "The cheap alternative would be to live a long way out, in cities scattered around the edges of these metropolitan regions. These cities tend to offer services similar to or even worse than those available in the favelas."

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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