The "Survey of the Ethno-Racial Characteristics of the Population:

a Study on the Classification Categories of Color or Race" (PCERP) collected data in 2008 from a sample of approximately 15 thousand households in Amazonas, Paraíba, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso and Federal District. Among the results, the highlight was the fact that 63.7% of the respondents consider that color or race influences their lives.

Among the situations in which color or race exerts the greatest influence, work occupies the first position, followed by politics/justice, social daily relations and school.

In almost all situations, the Federal District registered the highest percentages of declarations.

Among the respondents, 96% stated they knew their own color or race.

The five categories of IBGE’s classification (white, black, brown, yellow and indigenous), in addition to the terms "morena" (brunet) and " negra" (niger), were used.

Concerning aspects considered for self-identification, "color of skin" comes first (74% of the declarations), followed by "family origin" (62%) and "physical traits" (54%).

The complete study is available at:

https://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/caracteristicas_raciais/default_raciais.shtm

63.7% of the respondents consider color or race influence their lives

More than half of the respondents (63.7%) declared to PCERP that color or race influences people’ lives.

Among the surveyed Federation Units, the highest percentage of affirmative answers was recorded for the Federal District (77.0%) and the lowest, for Amazonas (54.8%). Women registered a higher percentage than men: 66.8% of women against 60.2% of men. Considering the different age groups, the highest percentages of affirmative answers were registered for the 25-to-39-year-of-age group (67.8%), followed by the group of people aged 15 to 24 years (67.2%). Both groups take turns in the leadership in all states, but in the Federal District the highlight is the 40-to-59 group, with 79.5%.

Work is considered the activity most influenced by color or race

Regarding situations in which color or race influences people’s lives in Brazil, "work" comes in first place, declared by 71% of the respondents.

The second place is occupied by "relations with justice/politics", declared by 68.3% of the respondents, followed by "social daily relations" (65%), "school" (59.3%) and "public bureaus" (51.3%).

The Federal District stood out with the highest percentages as to the declared influence of color or race in almost all the situations, such as "work" (86.2%), "relations with justice/politics" (74.1%), "social daily relations" (78.1%), "school" (71.4%) and "public bureaus" (68.3%).

Only when "marriage" was considered, Paraíba recorded 49.5% against the 48.1% of the Federal District.

96% of the respondents declared they knew their own color or race

Among the respondents, 96% stated they knew how to classify their own color or race.

Asked about their color or race (open-ended question), 95% of the respondents used one of IBGE’s five categories: white (49.0%), black (1.4%), brown (13.6%), yellow (1.5%) and indigenous (0.4%), in addition to the terms "brunet" (21.7%, including "light brunet" and "dark brunet") and "niger" (7.8%). Among the states, Amazonas stood out with the lowest percentage of answers to the "white" color (16.2%) and the highest proportion of the use of the term "brunet" (49.2%). Conversely, the highest percentage of answers using "niger" was recorded in the Federal District (10.9%), where the answers "white" and "brown" displayed equal proportions (29.5%).

Comparing the respondents’ self-declared classification with the interviewer’s classification (heteroclassification), a high consistency can be observed, except for the category "brunet", more used by the respondents (21.7%) than by the interviewer (9.3%).

That disagreement was higher in Paraíba, where 45.7% of the respondents self declared "brunet". The term was used by the interviewer in only 4.3% of the cases.

              Color of skin is the most cited characteristic to define color or race

Among the identification characteristics declared by the respondents, as to self-identification, the most frequently mentioned was "color of skin", declared by 74% of the respondents

It was followed by "family origin" (62%) and "physical traits" (54%). As for the identification of "people in general", the most cited characteristic was "color of skin" (82.3% of the respondents), followed by "physical traits (hair, mouth, nose, etc.)" (57.7%) and "family origin, ancestors" (47.6%).

Survey approached several identification elements

The interviews were conducted with one person aged 15 or over by household, randomly selected.

It approached the identification of the respondent with an open-ended question (self-classification) and tackled the characteristics that identify color or race for "people in general" and for the respondents themselves (culture, physical traits, family origin, color of skin etc.). There were specific questions about family origin (African, European, Middle East, among others) and about the alternatives respondents recognized for their self-identification (afro-descendant, indigenous, yellow, niger, white, black and brown). The survey also investigated the respondents’ parents’ occupations and education levels. Several questions allowed for multiple choice. Parallel to the respondents’ self-declared classification, the interviewer classified the color or race of the respondent by means of an open-ended question (heteroclassification). Finally, the survey approached the perception of the influence of the color or race in some domains of social life.