In an atmosphere of celebration and joy, more than 500 persons gathered at the Museum of Tomorrow auditorium, in Rio de Janeiro, last Wednesday (28) to witness the release of the 2022 Population Census first results, which, besides new data, present population trends and distribution over the Brazilian territory. Once more, the event gathered, both in person and online, a huge number of media representatives and reporters from all over the country, to produce, together with the IBGE, news material of great historical relevance.

Among the authorities attending the event, were: the head of the Special Advisory Department of the Ministry of Planing and Budget (MPO), João Villaverde, and the Secretary of Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies and Economic Affairs, Sérgio Firpo, both on behalf of minister Simone Tebet; and the Secretary of National Management System for Racial Equality Promotion, Ieda Leal.

Also present were the president of the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), Luciana Servo, and the director of Pereira Passos Institute (IPP), Carlos Krythine. International agencies were represented by Ivan Ojeda, Director of the National Statistical Institute of Paraguay, Diego Aboal, Technical Director of the National Statistical Institute of Uruguay, and Roberto Castillo, Executive Director of the National Statistical Institute of Ecuador, The ceremony was also attended by Florbela Fernandes and Júnia Quiroga, Brazil’s representative and deputy representative at the United Nations Population Fund, Luciana Phebo, from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Maria Beatriz Nogueira, from the UN Refugee Agency, Cinthia Barros, from the International Organization for Migration, and José Ribeiro Guimarães, from the WorldTrade Organization (WTO).

See the 2022 Census first results

Between 2010 and 2022, Brazilian population grows 6.5%, reaches 203.1 million

Brazil has 90 million housing units, 34% more than in 2010

The event was hosted by the IBGE staff, including the acting president, Cimar Azeredo, the director of Geosciences, Claudio Stenner, the director Data Processing, Carlos Cotovio, the technical coordinator for the Census Luciano Duarte, the chief of staff, Sonia Val, IBGE superintendents in the states, coordinators, researchers and enumerators, The audience was also formed by IBGE’s ex-presidents Simon Schwartzman, Eduardo Guimarães and Eduardo Rios Neto, and by members of the Consulting Committee and the group of Census Experts, as well as coordinators, managers and civil servants.

A huge operation that covered 8.5 million km²

Clearly thrilled, the acting president Cimar Azeredo highlighted that “having a crowded auditorium, with so many people who are important for the IBGE and who helped build it, or even with those who belong in here at heart, is amazing. What brought us here today was this huge operation that covered, in a period of ten months, 8.5 million km2 to conduct the Census. I must thank all the support from minister Simone Tebet in the conclusion of this Census and each IBGE servant who spend nights working to make it happen. And that’s why we can deliver this Census to you today. It does not belong to the IBGE, it belongs to Brazil because the entire society has been engaged in it.”

In a video message, minister Simone Tebet congratulated all the IBGE servants and enumerators and recalled: “as soon as we took office, we allocated more than R$ 380 million in extraordinary credits so that we could have the best Census in Brazil ever. Now that will allow civil society, the private initiative and the public sector to plan the future based on official data. As we prolonged the Census operation, about 16 million more people were included in it. That is the real Brazil. I hope that now, based on this portrait, we can build the Brazil of our dreams, a countr with less inequality, with more justice and solidarity.

Speaking on behalf of the minister, the head of the Special Advisory Department of the MPO, João Villaverde, mentioned that “finishing the Census is a reason for celebration, despite any problems faced here and there. The IBGE provides this portrait of a moment, it is an institution that has been with us for almost 100 years and helps us see how Brazil has changed, as well as our families, our homes, the way we move around and the access that we have or do not have to public and private services.” Mr. Villaverde added that “this Census might not have covered the entire Yanomami territory, but it did. This Census might have had not considered the two million people living in subnormal clusters, but it did, because of the Favela on the Map program, conducted with the support from Cufa (*). This Census might have a ‘bizarre, as my son would put it, non-respinde rate, but it did not. it may be very high here and very low there, but it all ends up at the same level as in other countries.”

The Secretary of Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies and Economic Affairs, Sérgio Firpo, stated that, with the Census, “the IBGE is that door connecting the citizen and the government. Knowing who we are, and then, after such a long time without a Census, is very important for the formulation and improvement of public policies. The narative has to be replaced by evidences aiming at the formulation of proper policies to serve the population. Speaking about my own academic experience, I have been working with the IBGE data for more than 30 years, and, therefore, I celebrate this day.

Paying homage to enumerators

On behalf of more than 60 thousand enumerators who worked in the Census, the IBGE chose three professionals, known by their outstanding work, to be paid homage to: one from Amazonas, a second one from Minas Gerais, and another one from Rio de Janeiro. João Barbosa Otero, an enumerator in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), said: “I got very happy to see a minha alegria era vepeople’s smile as they received the enumerator in their housing unit, community or tribe.”

Lais Torres Medeiros, census enumeration supervisor in Espera Feliz (MG), worked as an enumerator in other three cities in the same state, besides Sorriso and Lucas do Rio Verde, in Mato Grosso. “I say that was not only a job, my a family I met in Brazil. I had the opportunity of knowing about so many different peoples and cultures. I feel honored for having been part of these statitics used to plan public policies in Brazil for the coming 10 years.” The third one to speak was the retired Merchant Navy officer Raimundo Nonato Campos, an enumerator who worked in the Méier area (RJ) and confessed: “this opportunity was a kind of therapy, in my case, it made me feel very well.”

Other results of the 2022 Census, covering specific topics, will be released in coming months.