Title not available in English.

Abstract

Income and poverty In Brazil. Some of the relevant aspects of poverty in Brazil are studied in this article, based on empirical evidence, downplaying the subjacent methodological questions. Attention is called to me fact that the absence of recent information on the cost of living in urban and rural areas weakens the estimates on the evolution of poverty in the Country as a whole. In spite of this, it is irrefutable that poverty is a growing urban problem, which implies qualitative changes of the phenomenon. For the metropolitan regions, there concentrate 29% of the Brazilian population, there is no evidence of aggravation of poverty from the point of view of income, during the last decade, neither does the income gap represent a significant value in relation to the income of the non-poor. However, one must consider the growing concentration of the poor in the outskirt metropolitan areas, under adverse conditions of access to the basic public services. In this context, even though the criterion of income does not completely cover the problems of poverty, it is an essential parameter for the determination of target sub-population groups for the application of policies of social impact.