Worldwide, personal wealth grew 10.8% in 2025, more than double the pace recorded in the previous two years Pixabay Income inequality in Brazil continues to grow at the top of the pyramid. A report released this Wednesday (19) by Oxfam Brasil shows that the richest 1% of the population began to concentrate 24.3% of the country's entire income in 2023, compared to 20.4% in 2017. This means that, of every R$100 received by Brazilians, around R$24 remained with this small group. According to the study, most of this advance benefited an even more restricted portion: the richest 0.1%. ??Do you have any reporting suggestions? Send it to g1 The survey highlights that income concentration increased even in a scenario of improving social indicators. In 2024, per capita monthly income reached the highest level in the historical series of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), reaching R$2,020. In the same period, the Gini index fell to 0.506, the lowest ever recorded, and the difference in income between the richest 1% and the poorest 40% also reached the lowest level in the series. ? The Gini coefficient measures the level of inequality in the distribution of wealth in a country. When it is closer to 0, it indicates that wealth is better distributed among the population; when it approaches 1, it means that a small portion of people have most of the wealth, while the majority have little or almost nothing. The study also points out that around 8.6 million people left poverty, reducing the rate from 27.3% to 23.1% of the population. Still, the organization claims that the gains were not distributed evenly, allowing higher-income groups to increase their share of national income. When the analysis considers assets, such as real estate, investments and other assets, the concentration is even greater. According to the report, the richest 1% holds 37.3% of all declared wealth in the country. To reach these conclusions, the research crossed data from IBGE, the Federal Revenue Service, the Ministry of Finance and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), in addition to national and international studies on income, assets, taxation and political representation.
Inequality: the richest 1% accounts for almost a quarter of the country's entire income, according to an Oxfam study
Worldwide, personal wealth grew 10.8% in 2025, more than double the pace recorded in the previous two years Pixabay Income inequality in Brazil continues to grow at the top of the pyramid. A report released this Wednesday (19) by Oxfam...
This means that, of every R$100 received by Brazilians, around R$24 remained with this small group. According to the study, most of this advance benefited an even more restricted portion: the richest 0.1%.
- Send it to g1 The survey highlights that income concentration increased even in a scenario of improving social indicators.
- In 2024, per capita monthly income reached the highest level in the historical series of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), reaching R$2,020.
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The study also points out that the country ended 2025 as the fourth with the greatest wealth inequality in the world, with around 386 thousand dollar millionaires. As g1 showed, Brazil gained 9,215 new millionaires last year, ending 2025 with 386,000 people with assets exceeding US$1 million (around R$5.1 million), according to a study by UBS bank. As a result, the country continues to have the largest number of millionaires in Latin America. Despite this, Brazil remains among the countries with the highest concentration of wealth in the world, occupying 4th position among 56 markets analyzed Tax system and capital income Oxfam also criticizes the Brazilian tax structure, which it classifies as "regressive" for concentrating tax collection on consumption and wages rather than on the wealth and income of the richest. "This combination limits the State's redistributive capacity, as fiscal policy aggressively collects on the daily budget of the majority of the population, but is intentionally timid when affecting assets and capital income", states the entity. According to the report, the effective Income Tax rate falls to 4.6% among the richest 0.01% of the population, mainly due to the exemption on profits and dividends and the low taxation on inheritances. For the organization, this means that people with lower incomes end up committing a larger portion of the budget to taxes, while the richest pay proportionally less on their wealth, which makes it difficult to reduce inequality. Women and the black population remain at a disadvantage. The study also highlights that income and wealth inequalities remain strongly marked by gender and race. Although they represent 44.1% of Income Tax filers, women account for only 38% of declared income and 29.5% of net worth. On average, a woman declares assets of R$246,000, just over half of the average assets declared by men, of R$463,600. The data shows that men and women have different income profiles: ? Among women, 56.5% of income comes from taxable sources, mainly salaries and other remuneration from work. ? Among men, the largest portion of income is made up of income that is exempt or taxed exclusively at source, such as profits and dividends, financial investments and other capital gains, which usually have lower or differentiated taxation. According to Oxfam, this difference causes capital income to be more concentrated among men. In the job market, the report shows that non-black men receive, on average, R$6,560 per month, while black women receive R$3,026 in formal employment. Considering the entire job market, including the informal one, the average income of black women drops to R$2,079. Heritage influences political representation, according to organization The research argues that economic concentration is also reflected in Brazilian politics. Despite representing 52.65% of the electorate, women occupied only 17% of the seats won in the 2022 elections. White men accounted for 56.5% of those elected. The assets declared by the candidates also appear as a relevant factor. According to the survey, almost 45% of those elected declared assets greater than R$1 million. In the Senate races, no candidate who declared assets of up to R$100,000 managed to be elected. For Oxfam, these data indicate that financial capacity has a significant influence on electoral competitiveness. Entity defends increased taxation on large fortunes. Among them are the taxation of profits and dividends, increased taxation on large fortunes and inheritances, the review