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LIFTING
More elderly people live alone in Brazil, reveals IBGE census
The percentage of households in which only one person lives has increased significantly
Published on October 25, 2024 at 12:40 pm
Elderly Credit: Rafa Neddermeyer/Agência Brasil
Unpublished numbers from the 2022 Demographic Census released this Friday, 25th, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) show that the highest percentage of people living alone in the country are still elderly, although it is also growing in other age groups.
The percentage of households in which only one person lives made a significant jump, going from 12.20% in 2010 to 18.9% in 2022. Of this total, the largest group (28.7%) is still people aged 60 years or more. There are 5,664,602 elderly Brazilians living alone across the country. In São Paulo alone there are 1,336,761.
“The aging of the population is the main explanation”, explained Márcio Minamigushi, from IBGE. “Partners die, children leave home, people become alone.”
This is the case of Eliana Neves, 65 years old, who lives alone in a large penthouse apartment in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro. In 2009, she lost a 25-year-old son who was born with cystic fibrosis, a disease that causes lung necrosis. Two years later, she separated from her husband, with whom she had been married since 1982, and was left living with just her youngest daughter. In 2016, however, the young woman got married and left home.
“I was happy here,” said Eliana, who had just returned from the gym, where she works out every day. “I live in a big apartment alone, but I don’t feel lonely at all. My days are very busy and I travel a lot.”
Eliana’s mother, who died in February, aged 97, also lived alone in another apartment on the same street, but neither of them wanted to give up their independence, despite daily meetings and mutual support.
The highest proportions of households with just one resident were recorded in Rio de Janeiro (23.4%), Rio Grande do Sul (22.3%) and Espírito Santo (20.6%), with Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande of the South are the states with the oldest population. The lowest percentages of single-person houses are in Amapá (12.0%), Amazonas (13.0%) and Pará (13.5%), which are also the youngest states in the country.
In fact, figures from the 2022 Census released at the end of last year showed that the North and Northeast regions are the youngest in the country, where 25% and 21% of the population are up to 14 years old. The oldest regions are the Southeast and South, both with percentages of elderly people reaching 12%.
In Brazil, people over 65 already represent 10.9% of the population – a record high compared to the numbers from 2010, when the elderly represented 7.4% of the total. In 1980, to give you an idea, the youngest were 38.2% and the oldest were just 4%. In other words, the Brazilian demographic “pyramid” looks less and less like a pyramid and is acquiring a shape more similar to that of an amphora, indicating that the vast majority of the population is currently middle-aged.
This fact highlights the trend towards the beginning of the end of the demographic dividend (when the proportion of young people, the economically active population, is greater than that of the elderly and children, increasing the chances of gains in GDP). This movement began around 50 years ago and will begin to lose its effects from 2030 or even before, when the largest portion of the population will be elderly, increasing pressure on health and social security spending.
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