Amazonas region has the highest number of people below the poverty line in Brazil

By Marcela Leiros – From Cenarium

MANAUS (AM) – The “Rio Purus Valley” in Amazonas, consisting of 13 cities, was the region of the country with the highest proportion of people living below the poverty line in 2023, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The locality, with 66.6% of its population in this condition, is followed by the coast and lowlands of Maranhão, with 63.8%, and the surroundings of the Metropolitan Region of Manaus, also in Amazonas, with 62.3%.

According to IBGE, this locality consists of 13 municipalities: Anamã; Anori; Beruri; Boca do Acre; Caapiranga; Canutama; Careiro; Coari; Codajás; Lábrea; Manaquiri; Pauini; and Tapauá. In the surroundings of Manaus, the municipalities include Careiro da Várzea; Iranduba; Itacoatiara; Manacapuru; Novo Airão; Presidente Figueiredo; and Rio Preto da Eva.

The World Bank defines the poverty line for upper-middle-income countries, such as Brazil, as a per capita household income below US$ 6.85 per day in purchasing power parity. This means that, in these localities, dividing the total income in a household by the number of residents results in less than R$ 41.50, considering the dollar exchange rate this Wednesday.

According to IBGE, in other regions of the country, highlights include the surroundings of Cuiabá (MT), Brasília (DF), and Rio de Janeiro (RJ), with poverty proportions in the third tier, out of four, ranging from 27.4% to 48.8%. In the following locations, the percentages were: Metropolitan Surroundings of Cuiabá (MT), 29.9%; Integrated Region of Brasília in Goiás, 27.6%; and Metropolitan Arc of Nova Iguaçu (RJ), 33.9%.

The manager of the Social Indicators Synthesis (SIS) highlighted what he called inequality between states with the highest and lowest proportions of the population below the poverty line. “The stratified analysis allows us to see regional inequality, as data by federation units placed all those in the South, Southeast, and Midwest regions among the lowest values found,” observed Leonardo Athias.

The geographic strata are groupings of municipal areas within the same state, gathered to build statistical data for a smaller area.

Poor income distribution

The term is also used by Public Policy and Sustainability consultant Luiz Castro, who points out to CENARIUM that inequality results from poor income distribution, a product of an exclusionary economic development model. Castro analyses that this model, as well as Amazonas’ public administration, is “totally misguided” because it concentrates wealth and opportunities in the hands of a few.

“Public policies in Amazonas have never been focused on reducing inequality; they merely reproduce it, if not worsen it. For example: investments almost always start in Manaus, but they are not aimed at reducing inequality, for instance, in healthcare, by strengthening primary and medium-complexity care in inland cities,” he lists.

Castro also mentions the lack of public policies for sustainable development in inland areas, which leads the population to migrate to the capital, Manaus, in search of better opportunities.

“This process of attracting a large workforce, many people to Manaus and its surroundings, without employment opportunities, is tragic. There is a lack of public policy for sustainable development of inland production, our bioeconomy, our potential. Very little has been done to change the situation in the state’s interior so that municipalities could better exploit their economic potential,” he adds.

In the city, on the other hand, there are not enough jobs for so many people, many of whom do not meet market requirements.

“In the case of Manaus, it has attracted too many people to the capital, and the city does not have the economic support for so many inhabitants. And many of those who came lack schooling, unable to secure employment in the industrial sector because they sometimes haven’t even completed primary school. So, there is also a mismatch between education and the economic market,” he states.

GDP Growth

The positioning of two Amazonas localities among the poorest in the country contrasts with recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data in the state, which recorded a growth of 3.27%, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Development, Science, Technology, and Innovation (Sedecti). The report refers to the year 2022.

GDP is the sum of all goods and services produced in a given region and serves to measure economic evolution. Municipal-level data is always released with a two-year delay.

As for Manaus, the capital reached the fifth position among municipalities with the highest GDP index in 2021, also according to Sedecti. The city ranked sixth in 2019, rose to fifth in 2020, and remained in fifth position in 2021, with a GDP of R$ 103.281 billion, being the highest GDP in the North, Northeast, and South regions.

Decline in poverty

Despite Amazonas leading in the IBGE figures released this Wednesday, the institute pointed out that the state saw a “significant” reduction in the proportion of people living in extreme poverty (with less than US$ 2.15), between 2021 and 2023, dropping from 16.2% to 6.6%.

Despite the total population growth from 4.103 million to 4.221 million, the absolute number of people in this condition fell from around 665,000 in 2021 to approximately 279,000 in 2023, a reduction of 386,000 people.

In Manaus, the historical series analysis for the same period also showed a decrease in people living in extreme poverty, from 9.7% in 2021 to 3.9% in 2023, even with the increase in the monthly extreme poverty threshold from R$ 181 to R$ 205.

Translated from Portuguese by Gustô Alves