Child poverty reached record levels in Brazil in 2021, in a scenario of social crisis intensified by the pandemic.
This is what a publication by researchers from PUCRS Data Social, a study laboratory launched by the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, indicates.
The rate of children up to six years old who lived in households below the poverty line reached 44.7% in the country last year, the highest level in a decade, according to the survey.
The increase was 8.6 percentage points compared to 2020 when the index had fallen to 36.1%, the lowest in the series, under the impact of more robust payments of emergency aid.
The rate measures the percentage of children up to six years old who lived in households in a situation of poverty in relation to the total population of the same age group (17.5 million). That is, almost 45% of them were in homes considered poor.
In absolute terms, the number of children up to six years of age in poverty rose from 6.4 million to 7.8 million, another record, according to the survey. The increase was 22.6% from 2020 to 2021.
Translated by Cassy Dias