With the end of emergency aid in December, Brazil started 2021 with a significant increase in the extreme poverty rate. Today, the country has more people in poverty than before the pandemic and the beginning of the last decade, in 2011.
This January, 12.8% of Brazilians started living on less than R$ 246 per month (R$ 8.20 per day), a level of extreme poverty established by FGV Social based on data from the Continuing National Household Sample Surveys ( Pnads) and Covid-19.
In total, according to FGV Social projection, almost 27 million people are in this condition at the beginning of the year - more than the population of Australia.
This is a significant increase compared to the second half of 2020, when the payment of emergency aid to around 55 million Brazilians helped to decrease extreme poverty in August to 4.5% (9.4 million people) —the lowest level in the historical series.
The current rate—12.8%—is higher than that of the beginning of the previous decade (12.4%) and that of 2019 (11%).
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon