IBGE: official statistics for Brazil
IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) is Brazil's national statistics and geography agency. It runs the census, publishes annual population estimates, the IPCA inflation index, the PNAD Contínua household survey on jobs and income, quarterly GDP, poverty indicators and life tables. Its SIDRA database and a public API give free access to the tables.
What it publishes
- The census (most recently 2022) and annual population estimates for states and municipalities.
- Consumer price indices IPCA, IPCA-15 and INPC.
- PNAD Contínua: unemployment, informality and income from work in rolling three-month periods.
- Quarterly and annual national accounts (GDP).
- Social Indicators Synthesis (SIS) with poverty and inequality measures.
- Complete life tables each year and civil registry statistics on births, deaths and marriages.
Key datasets
- SIDRA table 7060: IPCA
Monthly, year-to-date and 12-month IPCA by product group.
- SIDRA table 6381: unemployment rate
Unemployment rate in rolling three-month periods.
- SIDRA table 6390: income from work
Average real monthly income of employed people.
- SIDRA table 5932: GDP growth
Quarterly GDP growth rates by sector.
- SIDRA table 6579: population estimates
Estimated population for Brazil, states and municipalities.
- Life tables 2024
Life expectancy and death probabilities by single year of age.
APIs and downloads
- IBGE aggregates APIFree JSON API to every SIDRA table, no key required when checked.
- IBGE file serverBulk files for surveys, census results and life tables.
When it publishes
IBGE publishes a release calendar for the year. IPCA comes out around the tenth of each month, PNAD Contínua at the end of each month, GDP about two months after each quarter, population estimates in the second half of the year and life tables in late November. IBGE's main website blocks some automated access, so open it in a browser.
How to use it to check a claim
- PNAD Contínua figures are rolling three-month averages; compare with the same period a year earlier.
- For inflation, say whether a figure is monthly, year to date or 12 months, and IPCA or INPC.
- For poverty, state which line is used (national SDG line or World Bank international line) and the year.
- Population estimates are projections, not counts; the 2022 census is the last count.
- Check whether GDP growth is quarter on quarter (seasonally adjusted) or year on year.
Common mistakes
- Comparing PNAD Contínua unemployment with the older monthly PME survey, which was discontinued.
- Treating the IPCA-15 (mid-month preview) as the final IPCA.
What is SIDRA?
SIDRA (Sistema IBGE de Recuperação Automática) is IBGE's free database of statistical tables, which can be filtered and downloaded.
When was Brazil's last census?
IBGE carried out the most recent census in 2022, after a delay from 2020. It counted 203,080,756 residents.
Questions answered using this source
- What is the population of Brazil?
- What is the inflation rate in Brazil?
- What is the average salary in Brazil?
- What is Brazil's GDP growth rate?
- What is the unemployment rate in Brazil?
- What is the poverty rate in Brazil?
- What is the life expectancy in Brazil?
Links checked 14 October 2026. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.