Poverty in Brazil: Income, Material Hardship and the Perception of Deprivation

André B. Golgher, Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional (CEDEPLAR)

Despite the recent advances observed in many social indicators in Brazil, income poverty levels are still quite high. However, in a rapid evolving society, poverty is relative and thresholds change dynamically. In many aspects of material hardships, income poor households are much better today than they were in the very recent past. Poverty judged by 1980 standards of material deprivation are nearly non-existent is most urban areas and are sizable only in some rural regions. Poverty today is qualitatively much different than it was some decades ago. Moreover, poverty has many dimensions. Income and food deprivation are still common in Brazil in rural areas, regions with multidimensional hardships. In urban areas, the deprivations are mostly one-dimensional, especially the ones related to physical problems in the dwelling and to problems with payments.