Brazil Pulls 880,000
People From Below
Poverty Threshold
The Brazilian government
said Monday that its
social programs have
succeeded in lifting
881,000 citizens from
below the poverty
threshold in the
2005-2006 period.
Living under the poverty
threshold means one's
monthly per capita
income is less than 175
reais (100 U.S.
dollars).
Based on data provided
by the National
Household Sample Survey,
of the Brazilian
Geography and Statistics
Institute (IBGE), the
Ministry of Social
Security stated that the
government's social
protection system
prevented 21.9 million
Brazilians from falling
below the poverty
threshold in 2006, which
represents 12 percent of
the country's entire
population.
According to the
ministry, the amount of
people living below the
threshold would have
increased from the
current 57.8 million to
79.7 million, if not for
the "protection system."
A total of 51.9 million
Brazilians lived on
welfare in 2006, which
represents 64.1 percent
of the country's
employed workforce, with
ages ranging from 16 to
59.
Minister of Social
Security Luiz Marinho
said that the figure has
been rising since 2002,
when welfare reached
61.7 percent of that
part of the population.
Marinho attributed the
overall result to
Brazil's economic growth
and to the increase in
formal employment, which
allows workers to have
more access to social
programs.
The government also
stated that Brazil's
social security assists
80.7 percent of its
elderly population,
which means 15.4 million
people. According to the
ministry, only Brazil
and Uruguay assist over
80 percent of their
elderly citizens in
Latin America, where
assistance reaches an
average of 50 percent of
them.
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