Between 2021 and 2025, more than 10 million people left poverty in the country's metropolitan regions. The data comes from the Inequality in the Metropolises bulletin, produced in partnership by the Observatório das Metrópoles, the Social Debt Observatory Network in Latin America (RedODSAL) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS). According to the study, based on information from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the poverty rate in 22 Brazilian metropolises reached 18.4% in 2025, “reaching, for the third consecutive year, the lowest value in the historical series [since 2012]”. Related news: Study maps 13 profiles of young people most vulnerable to inequalities. Milton Santos, 100 years old: black geographer theorized about inequalities. "It was a significant reduction. A large level, despite the level of poverty still remaining quite high in all of Brazil's metropolises", says, in an interview with Agência Brasil, economist and sociologist Marcelo Ribeiro, professor at the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and researcher at the Observatório das Metrópoles. For the expert, the observed reduction in poverty has to do with the remuneration of work and benefited from the greater supply of occupations in the country. “It is very much linked to the fact that the poorest people have increased their income level through income from work.” He rules out that the improvement has to do with social income transfer programs. The amounts paid by Bolsa Família have not changed since March 2023. Monthly household income According to the Inequality in the Metropolises bulletin, “the average household income per capita in all of the country’s metropolises reached a new record in 2025”. The value was R$2,766. Last year, there were around 15.2 million people (15,188,817) in poverty in the metropolitan regions of RM – who had up to R$729 per month (the result of the monthly household income divided by the number of people in the family). The volume is equivalent to the total population of Pará, Paraíba and Sergipe combined. Of this universe, 2.6 million people were in extreme poverty: they had up to R$229 per month (per capita monthly family income). The volume is equivalent to the total number of inhabitants of Fortaleza or Salvador. The bulletin highlights that "the extreme poverty rate fell to 3.2% in all Brazilian metropolises. This level was only higher than the rates recorded in 2013 and 2014. The richest 10% earn 16.1 times more than the poorest 40% The bulletin also evaluated the concentration of income measured by the Gini index. In 2025, the value was 0.511 – according to the indicator, the closer to 1, the greater the accumulation of income among fewer people. According to the study's press release, “the increase in inequality [between 2024 and 2025] was also identified by the ratio between the income of the richest 10% and the poorest 40% of the population. In 2025, those at the top of the income distribution received, on average, 16.1 times more than those at the bottom, reinforcing the persistence of socioeconomic disparities in Brazilian metropolises.” For Marcelo Ribeiro, there is more than one reason for the perpetuation of historic social inequality in Brazil: the job market and income from financial investments. “For the richest, the job market has a special effect. They are in the highest-paying occupations, as they are those with the highest level of education.” Furthermore, the economist recalls that during the period of analysis the country lived “with very high interest rates. Only groups with greater purchasing power are able to make financial investments. Their income, both from work and from financial investments, contributed to the increase in income - which was proportionally greater than that of the lower socioeconomic strata.” Inequality on the map Ribeiro highlights that inequality has geographic distribution. The metropolises in the North and Northeast regions are proportionally poorer than those in the South, Southeast and Central-West. The Federal District, with an average monthly income of R$4,401, has an amount 2.7 times higher than the average income of greater São Luís (R$1,616). The metropolitan regions observed were Manaus, Belém, Macapá, São Luís, Fortaleza, Natal, João Pessoa, Recife, Maceió, Aracaju, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Vitória, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Vale do Rio Cuiabá and Goiânia, the Federal District and the Integrated Administrative Development Region of Teresina (PI). The 22 metropolitan regions observed in the study are made up of around 300 cities. Four out of every ten people who live in Brazil live in these areas.