BRASILIA, Aug 6 (AFP): The economic boom in Brazil has shrunk the proportion of poor in the country to less than a third of the population while the number of rich and, especially, middle-class have grown, a study released yesterday showed.
Half of Brazil's population of 190 million (52 per cent) live in families considered middle class, with revenues of between 1,064 and 4,591 reals (685-2,960 dollars) per month, the study by the respected private Getulio Vargas Foundation said.
Just four years ago, the proportion was 42.5 per cent, it said.
The number of poor over the same period has dropped from 46 per cent in 2003 to 32.5 per cent today.
The rich now account for 15.5 per cent of the population, up from 11.6 per cent.
The foundation noted that it was the first time Brazil had more middle-class people than poor people.
"Brazil has recorded a reduction in social inequality since 2004, after decades of it barely budging," an economist at the foundation, Marcelo Neri, said.
While it was clear that inequality "is still very high," much has been done to tackle it, he added.
The survey covered a statistically relevant population aged between 15 and 60 and was carried out in April this year.
Separately, a state study by the Economic Research Institute, said Tuesday that poverty was falling in Brazil's biggest cities.
In 2003, one urban inhabitant in three was considered poor. Today, it is one in four, it said, adding that over that period three million people left the poverty bracket.
It said that just one per cent of big urban populations were considered rich-and that half of all of Brazil's wealthy lived in Sao Paulo.
