Hunger in Brazil: in 5 years, the number of people in a situation of severe food insecurity grows by 3 million, says IBGE | economy

The survey was conducted between June 2017 and July 2018 and noted a worsening of the diet in Brazilian families. Only residents of permanent homes are counted, that is, people on the street are excluded from the survey, which could further increase the hunger trail across the country.

• Rice weighs more in the budget of families with food insecurity, says IBGE
• Brazilians spend more on gambling and betting than on rice, says IBGE

Classified by IBGE as food security, full and regular access to quality food, in sufficient quantity, without compromising access to other essential needs, reached the lowest level in 15 years.

“When looking at the historical series, we observed that there was a decrease in food security and the consequent increase in food insecurity rates among the Brazilian population,” emphasized the manager of the IBGE Family Budget Survey (POF), André Luiz Martins Coast. .

The researcher pointed out that hunger is more present in rural areas of the country, because “people who are in urban areas obtain more alternatives [de alimentação] than those who live in rural areas, “he said.

According to the survey, 63.3% of households in Brazil had so-called food security, compared to 65.1% in 2004, when the historical series of the survey began. The IBGE pointed out that this percentage increased, consecutively, in the following two surveys, carried out in 2009 and 2013, but fell back to the all-time low in 2018.

The highest food security coverage was recorded in 2013, when 77.4% of all households reached a point where food could be considered complete and regular.

Compared to 2013, the number of food-secure households decreased by 13.7%. On the other hand, the number of food insecure households increased by 71.5%.

The IBGE classifies food insecurity into three levels: mild, moderate and severe, as follows:

• Mild food insecurity: there is concern or uncertainty about access to food in the future, in addition to a drop in the adequate quality of food as a result of strategies that aim not to compromise the quantity of food consumed.
• Moderate food insecurity: there is a quantitative reduction in food consumption among adults and / or a breakdown in eating patterns.
• Severe food insecurity: There is also a quantitative reduction in eating among children, that is, a break in eating patterns as a result of lack of food among all household members. In this situation, hunger becomes an experience lived at home..

It was moderate food insecurity that grew the most in Brazilian households between 2013 and 2018, an increase of 87.53%. Mild food insecurity increased by 71.5% in the same period, while severe food insecurity increased by 48.8%.

Hunger is more prevalent in rural areas

Although the largest number of people living in food poverty live in urban areas, it is in rural areas where hunger is most prevalent.

According to IBGE, of the approximately 10.3 million who suffer from hunger in the country, 7.7 million lived in urban areas, while 2.6 million lived in rural regions. However, proportionally, these figures represented, respectively, 23.3% of the total population living in urban areas and 40.1% of the rural population.

“People in the urban environment obtain more alternatives for their food, replacing items more easily than in the rural area, which has less variety of food available,” said the research manager, André Costa.

Almost half of the hungry live in the northeast

Of the approximately 10.3 million Brazilians who went hungry in 2018, 4.3 million lived in the Northeast Region, which corresponds to 41.5% of the total hungry in the country. Then comes the Southeast Region, with 2.5 million hungry inhabitants, and the North, with just over 2 million people in this situation.

However, considering the proportion of households with severe restrictions on access to adequate food, the Northern Region is the one that leads the ranking. There, 10.2% of households were hungry during the survey period. This proportion is approximately five times higher than that observed in the South, where 2.2% of households were classified as severely food insecure.

IBGE pointed out that in the North and Northeast, less than half of the households (43% and 49.7%, respectively) had full and regular access to adequate food. In the South, this percentage reached 79.3%. They are followed by the Southeast and the Midwest, with 68.8% 64.8%, respectively, of households with food security.

Half of the children are food insecure

When analyzing the food situation by age groups, the IBGE identified that half of the children up to the age of 4 lived in households with some type of food insecurity, 34.2% of them in households with mild food insecurity, 10, 6% food insecure. moderate food, and another 5.1% with severe insecurity, which characterizes hunger.

In the age group between 5 and 17 years old, 50% of these young people lived half (50.7%) under some type of food insecurity. In the age group between 18 and 49 years this percentage was 41.2%, while in the group between 50 and 64 years this percentage was reduced to 34.6%.

The lowest proportion of people living under some type of food insecurity is in the age group over 65 years: 21.3%. In total, about 2.7% of people over the age of 65 were severely food insecure during the survey period, meaning they went hungry between 2017 and 2018.

“As the age of the person increases, the possibilities of having greater food security increase,” said IBGE researcher André Costa.

The study also showed that, in households with food security conditions, men predominate as responsible for the household income. According to the survey, 61.4% of households with full and regular access to quality food were headed by men. Women were responsible for 38.6% of households in this situation.

“Households whose wife is the person of reference are more associated with insecurity, as well as households with many residents,” said the research manager.

Among severely food insecure, that is, hungry households, 51.9% were headed by women, according to the survey.

When analyzing the food situation of households by color or race, it was found that only 36.9% of households with food security were headed by a self-declared black or brown person. This percentage went from 50% for the three levels of food insecurity: 50.7% for mild insecurity, 56.6% for moderate insecurity and 58.1% for severe insecurity.

Where they eat three, they don’t eat seven

When analyzing the food situation considering the composition of the household, the IBGE identified that the smaller the number of inhabitants, the greater the food security.

According to the survey, 72.5% of households with full and regular access to food of adequate quality had up to three residents, while 26.3% had between four and six residents. Only 1.1% of them had more than seven inhabitants.

Among severely food insecure households – with severe food restrictions, which characterize the hunger situation – 61.2% had up to three residents, 32.4% between four and six, and 6.4% had more than seven.

See the latest economics videos