Resource information
The states in the Brazilian Amazon have
made progress in reducing poverty and improving social
indicators in the last decade. Despite this progress, the
poverty rate in the Amazon is among the highest in Brazil.
As of 2000, rural poverty is the greatest challenge. In
Par?, not only is the headcount poverty rate of 58.4 percent
in rural areas more than 55 percent higher than headcount
poverty in urban areas, but also poverty is much deeper in
rural areas. The fall in infant mortality and adult
illiteracy corroborate the improvement in measured income
poverty. Census data from 2000 and 1991 reveal that more
people left Par? than came to live in the state during the
1970s, the opposite of the 1980s. In 2000, the Gini
coefficient for Par?, as in the Amazon as a whole, was 0.60.
The poverty profile reveals that indigenous peoples
experience a higher poverty incidence than other groups.
Census 2000 data reveal that living in rural areas in Par?
does not by itself affect the probability of being poor.
Individual and household characteristics are more important
than geographical location. The largest statistical
differences in poverty reduction between rural and urban
areas are found in the effect of education, sector of
employment, gender, and family size. PNAD data from 2001
reveal that living in urban areas in Par? does not by itself
affect the probability of falling below the poverty line in
urban areas in Brazil. The strongest poverty correlates are
education, experience, race, rural location, gender, and
labor market association.
