Brazil had almost 64.2 million people living in households classified as having some degree of food insecurity (mild, moderate or severe) in 2023.
This is what data from Pnad Contínua (Continuous National Household Sample Survey) revealed this Thursday (25) by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) points out.
The contingent of almost 64.2 million lived in 21.6 million food insecure households. These 21.6 million addresses corresponded to 27.6% of the total number of private households in the country in 2023 (78.3 million).
Although food insecurity still affects almost 3 in every 10 households, the proportion lost strength in the most recent comparison of the IBGE historical series.
The percentage of households in this condition was 36.7% (or 25.3 million) in the survey by the body that had last investigated the topic, the POF (Family Budget Survey) 2017-2018.
Although the surveys are different, their results can be analyzed together because they follow the same methodology, indicates the institute.
The IBGE states that it used Ebia criteria (Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale) to identify households in a condition of food security or insecurity.
The body did not research the topic in the interval between POF 2017-2018 and Pnad 2023. During this vacuum, the country suffered the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the crisis, families lost income and felt food prices soar. Scenes of Brazilians looking for donations and even leftover food gained attention at the time.
André Martins, an IBGE analyst, associated the reduction in food insecurity in Pnad 2023, compared to POF 2017-2018, with factors such as the recovery of the job market and the expansion of social programs.
Another possible impact, according to the researcher, came from the deflation (fall in prices) of food last year. “The recovery that we see in other indicators will be reflected in access to food,” said Martins.
Data released by IBGE last week showed that per capita income (per person) broke a record in Brazil in 2023.
The income would have been boosted by the improvement in the job market and the expansion of Bolsa Família, one of the bets of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government.
The percentage of households classified as food insecure last year, however, is still higher than that recorded by IBGE in Pnad ten years earlier.
According to the survey, 22.6% of households were in this situation in 2013 – five percentage points below the level of 2023 (27.6%).
What is food insecurity?
The criteria adopted by IBGE divide households into three categories of food insecurity: mild, moderate and severe. The phenomenon cannot be used as a direct synonym for hunger, according to the agency.
Mild food insecurity involves worry or uncertainty about access to food in the future. In this condition, the quality of food is affected as a strategy to avoid compromising quantity.
At a moderate level, there is a quantitative reduction in food intake among adults and/or disruption in eating patterns due to a lack of products.
In households with severe food insecurity, restricting the amount of food also affects children, when present. In other words, there is a disruption in eating patterns resulting from the lack of food for all residents, including the youngest. In this situation, hunger becomes an experience lived at home, says IBGE.
Mild food insecurity is the most common in Brazilian homes. In 2023, this degree reached 18.2% of the total number of households, above the percentages related to the moderate (5.3%) and severe (4.1%) levels.
The sum of the three categories corresponds to the proportion of 27.6% of households experiencing food insecurity last year.
In Pnad 2004, which marks the beginning of the series published by IBGE, the percentage of households with some level of the problem (mild, moderate or severe) was 34.8%.
The topic was also investigated in Pnad 2009, when the proportion of addresses experiencing food insecurity fell to 30.2%. After that, there were surveys in 2013 (22.6%), 2017-2018 (36.7%) and 2023 (27.6%).
Which groups are most affected?
IBGE data indicate that food insecurity affects population groups that have historically also been most harmed by other economic and social inequalities.
In 2023, for example, 34.5% of households in rural areas lived with the problem. The percentage exceeded that found in homes in urban regions of the country (26.7%).
Rural areas tend to have a lower average income than cities, which helps explain the results, according to IBGE. “The issue of income is closely associated with food insecurity,” said Martins.
In 2023, only 7.9% of food insecure households were responsible for people with a higher education degree. This level of education reached 23.4% in food secure households and 19.1% in total addresses.
The reference people had no education in 7.7% of food insecure households. This is a higher percentage than those registered in food secure homes (4.7%) and in total addresses (5.6%).
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Data from 2023 also signal disparities in the analysis that considers color or race. Mixed race people were responsible for 54.5% of food insecure households, a higher percentage than that recorded by this population in the total number of households (44.7%).
A similar situation is seen when the reference people are black. A share of 15.2% of food insecure addresses had black people as responsible, a higher level than that found in the total number of households (12%).
When the focus is on the white population, the scenario is reversed. Among households with food insecurity, 29% had white people as responsible, a lower proportion than that found in the total number of households (42%).
Another section released by IBGE involves gender. In 2023, women were responsible for 59.4% of food insecure households, a percentage higher than that recorded in total households (51.7%).
Meanwhile, men were the reference residents in 40.6% of addresses with the problem, a lower level than that observed in total (48.3%).
Considering only households with moderate or severe food insecurity, per capita household income (per person) reached a maximum of half the minimum wage in half of the households in 2023 (50.9%).
This percentage was well above the results in food secure households (14.3%) and in total households (21.8%).
According to the study criteria, a family is food secure when it has regular and permanent access to quality food in sufficient quantity, without compromising access to other needs.
In 2023, the country had 72.4% of its total households in a food secure situation, according to Pnad. This is equivalent to 56.7 million households out of a total of 78.3 million.
The proportion grew compared to POF 2017-2018, when it was 63.3%. However, it was still below the level recorded in Pnad 2013 (77.4%).
The 56.7 million households with food security were home to almost 152 million residents in 2023. This contingent is equivalent to 70.3% of the total population projected in the survey (216.1 million people).
The 64.2 million residents of households with food insecurity (21.6 million homes) corresponded to 29.7% of the population.
Pnad’s population estimates have not yet been updated based on the results of the 2022 Demographic Census, which at the time counted fewer Brazilians than previously predicted by IBGE.
