The relevance of the data brought by the Atlas of Mobility has had repercussions in the national press. The results were the subject of an exclusive report by the newspaper "O Globo", which highlighted that less than half of Brazilians born among the poorest 50% manage to surpass their parents' income. "Folha de S.Paulo" also addressed the topic, drawing attention to the fact that less than 2% of poor children in Brazil reach the income of the richest. "Folha de S.Paulo" also revisited the topic in its editorial last Sunday, highlighting the seriousness of the structural problem by highlighting that Brazil continues to be a country where poor adults, for the most part, are children of equally poor parents.
Regional comparisons reinforce this diagnosis. In the North and Northeast, three out of four children from poor families remain among the lowest income segments. In the Southeast and Midwest, this proportion is around half, while in the South it is close to two out of five. The chances of rising to the richest 25% also vary strongly: they are only 7.4% in the North and 18.1% in the South. Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul appear with the best indicators of upward social mobility in the country, while Acre and Pará are among the states with the worst results. These contrasts show that the place of origin continues to be one of the determinants of economic opportunities in Brazil.
To complement the information presented in the Atlas, we have also developed a new Social Mobility Dashboard, which offers an interactive interface that allows you to combine multiple filters — such as sex, skin color/race, region, parents' education and other dimensions — to deepen the analysis of intergenerational mobility. With it, it is possible to make finer cuts and compare specific groups in a flexible way, significantly expanding the analytical potential of the tool.
Atlas estimates are based on the methodology described in the academic article "Intergenerational Mobility in the Land of Inequality" (Britto et al., 2024), which represents an important advance in the measurement of social mobility in developing countries. The sample is representative of the adult population born between 1983 and 1990. Individuals in the sample are connected to their parents through administrative records. Subsequently, the income of the parents during the childhood and adolescence of the individuals (1990-2010) and the income (and other results) of the individuals as adults (between 25 and 29 years of age) are measured. The income considered includes both formal and informal income, estimated with high precision from statistical models based on household survey data.
The scientific methodology is detailed on the Atlas website, and all the aggregated data is available for download from the tool itself.
Developed by IMDS in partnership with GAPPE, Oppen Social, Clean (Bocconi) and FIB – Fábrica de Ideias Brasileiras and designed to serve researchers, students, managers and public policy makers, journalists, and all those interested in the theme of social mobility, the Atlas of Mobility and the Social Mobility indicator panel can be accessed from the website www.imdsbrasil.org or at the address https://atlasmobilidadesocial.org.br/.
