Federal District is the 4th most unequal federative unit in the country while capital accumulates the highest national per capita income
Brasilia turns 63 this Friday (April 21, 2023). The city is marked by extremes that reflect a wide socioeconomic inequality between the rich and the poor who live in the capital of the Brazilian Republic of about 3 million inhabitants.
At one end, the RA (Administrative Region) of Lago Sul has the highest per capita household income in Brazil: BRL 10,979 monthly. On the other hand, preliminary data from the 2022 Census of IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) show that Sol Nascente surpassed Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro, and became the largest favela in the country, with 32,081 houses.
According to data from the Continuous 2021 PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), the Gini Index –the closer to 1, the less equality– of the DF (Federal District) is 0.566. It is the 4th most unequal federative unit in the country.
Here are the 3 most unequal states:
1st: Roraima (0.596);
2nd: Rio Grande do Norte (0.587); It is
3rd: Pernambuco (0.579).
The scenario in the federal capital can be explained by the term “Belindia”formulated by the Brazilian economist Edmar Bacha in the fable “The King of Belindia”, published in 1974, to explain the social and economic contrast in Brazil: “An island of prosperity the size of Belgium in an India-like sea of poverty”.
In 2023, about 50 years after the emergence of the expression, the noblest region of Brasília has a monthly per capita household income that is close to that of European nations, such as Spain (BRL 9,487)and other developed countries, such as South Korea (BRL 10,638).
Meanwhile, Structural –the poorest administrative region of the capital– has income per month of BRL 695less than Bangladesh (BRL 843) and india (BRL 702).
According to the political scientist and president of the FL (Foundation of Economic Freedom), Márcio Coimbra, the economic reality of the capital is shaped by civil service, in particular, by high wages. “Brasília translates into an economy supported by the State”he stated.
“Most civil servants are in certain places in the city and, where there is less civil service, in addition to serving their own local economy, they serve these people from civil service”he said.
However, according to Betina Barbosa, coordinator of the Human Development Unit of UNDP (United Nations Development Program), this is not a reality exclusive to Brasilia, it is repeated in other cities around the world.
“When you look, for example, at per capita income in Brussels (Belgium) or from Paris (France)which are cities that also bring together a structure of the State apparatus, you, in general, produce this high-level bureaucracy within the State, which is well remunerated”he said.
Barbosa also stated that the “problem” of the DF is the antagonism between a functionalism “extremely qualified” concentrated in Brasilia, while sectors of the surrounding economy “still need dynamic injection”.
“We have a high standard of development and qualification in this Brazilian public sector, which is well paid and therefore has the ability to live in and choose neighborhoods that are upscale neighborhoods in the DF to live. And you have another group of people who cannot find spaces in the public sector, because they do not have enough qualifications”he said.
FEDERAL DISTRICT, THE RICHEST IN THE COUNTRY
According to IBGE data from 2022, the DF has a higher per capita household income than all 26 Brazilian states, with BRL 2,913 per month. It is ahead of major Brazilian centers, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, for, respectively, R$ 765 and R$ 942. Read the infographic below.
The monthly per capita income of the 33 Administrative Regions of DF vary between the highest national average (South Lake) and areas that do not even reach the amount of 1 minimum wage currently quoted at R$ 1,320, such as Planaltina (R$ 1,309); Rising Sun and Sunset (R$ 916); and Structural (R$ 695).
The numbers are from Pdad (District Household Sample Survey) by Codeplan (Federal District Planning Company) for 2021. The Company also divided the DF into 4 “income groups”being the richest of them, the least populous. Read the rating below.
- High Income: Águas Claras, Jardim Botânico, Lago Norte, Lago Sul, Park Way, Plano Piloto and Sudoeste and Octagonal:
- population: 544,432 and average household income: BRL 15,159.22
- Middle-high income: Arniqueira, Candangolândia, Cruzeiro, Guará, Núcleo Bandeirante, SIA, Sobradinho, Taguatinga and Vicente Pires:
- population: 624,654 and income: BRL 6,845.95
- Lower-middle income: Ceilândia, Gama, Riacho Fundo, Samambaia, Santa Maria and Sobradinho 2:
- population: 989,578 and income: BRL 4,360.12
- Low Income: Brazlândia, Fercal, Itapoã, Paranoá, Planaltina, Recanto das Emas, Riacho Fundo 2, Sol Nascente and Pôr do Sol, São Sebastião, Estrutural and Varjão:
- population: 852,217 and income: R$ 2,860.08.
PANDEMIC
In recent years, while the country faced a pandemic that left the population poorer at the national level, the income of Brasilia residents has not stopped growing.
For example, from 2020 to 2021 –one of the most critical periods of the covid health crisis– the IBGE recorded a drop in Brazilian citizen income from BRL 1,380 to BRL 1,367, while Brasília’s per capita income went from BRL 2,475 to BRL 2,513.
According to Márcio Coimbra, the pandemic scenario “increased the inequality gap” that previously existed in Brasilia.
“Where you have a high concentration of income, as in Lago Sul and Lago Norte, these people were able to protect themselves much more during the pandemic than in other places. Usually, they are civil servants, so they continued to receive their salary. […] The poorest people, who depend on commuting to work, have been out of work during the pandemic.”he said.
HDI
The DF also emerges in the ranking with the highest HDI (Human Development Index) in the country: 0.824 –is the only Brazilian federative unit with an index greater than 0.8.
The statistic is calculated by UNDP. According to the UN body (United Nations), the HDI “is a summary measure of long-term progress in 3 basic dimensions of human development”:
- income;
- education; It is
- health.
In addition, the Atlas of Human Development in Brazil carried out by UNDP with the Ipea (Institute for Applied Economic Research) and the FJP (Fundação João Pinheiro) showed that Brasilia figures in the top 10 of Brazilian cities with the best HDI in 2022, occupying the 9th position.
According to the coordinator of the Human Development Unit of the United Nations Development Program, it is necessary to boost dynamic economic sectors to reduce geographic inequality in Brasília.
“We would have to look at a larger set of social policies, invest in the economy in the sense of making another set of incomes be added to this income coming from the public sector in the federal capital”he stated.
For Coimbra, Brasilia can be “hostage of the lack of planning and the excess of people immigrating to the city in search of better alternatives”which may result in increased inequality in the city in the coming years.
“We live in a period of still a lot of migratory flow to Brasilia and to the surroundings and, if this migratory flow is not worked on –I don’t say contained–, if you don’t have public policies of inclusion, education, training for people arriving in the Federal District , so that they can perhaps develop their own economy in the place where they live, if you don’t have effective actions for social inclusion, you will really have an increase in inequality between social classes”, declared.
CORRECTION
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