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Unprecedented indicator places Brazil in the highest range of municipal human development, but progress loses strength when income, race, gender, and territorial inequalities are factored in, revealing differences that still keep part of the population away from the gains recorded in the country.
In 2024, Brazil reached, for the first time, the range of very high human development in the Municipal Human Development Index, the IDH-M, reaching 0.805 points, the highest mark in the series analyzed by Pnud, in partnership with the João Pinheiro Foundation and IBGE.
According to an article published by Folha de S. Paulo this Monday (26), the result is included in the Radar IDHM, a report that tracks the evolution of the indicator between 2012 and 2024. In this interval, the national index rose from 0.744 to 0.805, progress that took the country to the highest level of the classification used in the survey.
Despite the improvement in the overall indicator, the inequality-adjusted calculation shows a different picture. When losses associated with income, education, longevity, and social conditions are factored in, Brazil leaves the very high human development range and appears at a medium level.
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This contrast is presented by the report as evidence that the national average does not, by itself, reflect the conditions experienced by the entire population. The adjusted index indicates that gains in health, education, and income do not reach all social groups equally.
IDH-M of Brazil advances, but inequality reduces the reach of the result
The IDH-M measures three dimensions of human development: longevity, education, and income. The methodology follows the logic of the global HDI but was adapted to the Brazilian context, which prevents a direct comparison between the national municipal indicator and the index used to compare countries.
Between 2012 and 2024, there was growth in the three dimensions observed by the study. Education was the component with the greatest evolution in the period, with an average annual increase of 1.35%, although it recorded a punctual drop in 2021, during the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Longevity and income also advanced, but at a slower pace, with an average of 0.31% per year. In the case of longevity, the survey reports that the indicator resumed growth after the losses observed in the most critical years of the health crisis.
The worst result of the longevity series occurred in 2021, according to the report, due to the impacts of the pandemic. After two consecutive years of decline, in 2020 and 2021, recovery began in 2022 and led the component to its highest value in 2024.
In the income dimension, the trajectory was described as fluctuating by the study. The report links this variation to the effects of the economic crisis that began in 2015 and, subsequently, to the consequences of the pandemic on the labor market and family income.
Racial inequality in human development still appears in the series
The IDHM Radar also records a reduction in the gap between whites and blacks, but points out that the difference remains significant in the analyzed period. The black population had a higher percentage growth in the indicator, although it remained below the level recorded by the white population.
Between 2012 and 2024, the IDH-M of the white population went from 0.804 to 0.851. In the same interval, the index of the black population rose from 0.694 to 0.774, a result that represents greater progress in proportional terms, but still at a lower level.
The difference between the groups fell from 14% to 9% over the series. Even with this reduction, the race and gender breakdowns presented in the survey show that blacks and women remain at lower levels compared to other groups.
According to the study’s data, the national improvement is not distributed uniformly among the population. Historically more vulnerable groups continue to have lower indicators of income, education, and conditions associated with human development, according to the breakdowns presented by the IDHM Radar.
IDH-M adjusted for inequality changes the Brazilian portrait
The difference between the traditional IDH-M and the Inequality-Adjusted IDH-M, called IDHMAD, helps explain why the national average presents only part of the picture. This indicator incorporates losses caused by inequalities within the evaluated dimensions themselves.
By the traditional IDH-M, Brazil reached the level of very high human development in 2024. By the adjusted index, however, the country appears only in medium human development, after having left the low development range in 2012.
The report states that the 2024 data shows how much Brazilian human development remains distant from a portion of the population that is not represented by the national average. The evaluation is used in the study to differentiate aggregate progress and effective access to opportunities.
Another aspect presented is the IDH-M adjusted for work income. In this indicator, women appear at a disadvantage throughout all the years of the series, although they have also shown progress in the period analyzed, between 2012 and 2024.
During the period, the adjusted index for men rose from 0.737 to 0.802. For women, it went from 0.736 to 0.798, a result close to the male index but still lower, in a context where the study points to a persistent difference linked to work income.
Human development in the states shows regional distances
All 27 federative units reached high or very high human development levels by 2024. Despite this result, only nine were above the national index, all located in the South and Southeast regions, according to the data presented by the survey.
The distribution of the highest indices in these regions confirms, according to the report data, the persistence of differences between parts of the country. The study presents variations in life expectancy, per capita household income, and adult population schooling.
Life expectancy at birth varies from 74.32 years in Amapá to 79.75 years in the Federal District. In per capita household income, the distance ranges from R$ 482.46 in Maranhão to R$ 1,465.10 in the Federal District.
In education, the percentage of people aged 18 or over with complete primary education ranges from 59.14% in Paraíba to 83.37% in the Federal District. These indicators show differences between federative units in dimensions used in the calculation of human development.
Even with the distance between state results, all federative units showed growth in the IDH-M compared to the period before the pandemic. The greatest advances were recorded in Alagoas, Piauí, and Rio Grande do Norte, according to the IDHM Radar.
Income remains among the main challenges of the IDH-M in Brazil
Among the three dimensions of the IDH-M, income was the component with the most limited progress in the period analyzed. The indicator rose from 0.456 in 2012 to 0.508 in 2024, an evolution inferior to that registered in education and at a slower pace than observed in the general series.
For Bettina Ferraz Barbosa, Human Development Coordinator at UNDP in Brazil, income should occupy a central place in a new development cycle. The assessment is made based on the relationship between public policies, the labor market, and the private sector.
According to Bettina, the Brazilian social growth technology is anchored in minimum income programs and social assistance. The coordinator states that this strategy has limitations because income, unlike health and education, also reacts to market behavior.
“This is a technology that has more flaws because if the education dimension and the health dimension have in their DNA the strict sense public policy, the income dimension also reacts to what happens in the market, in the private sector,” said Bettina.
In the assessment of the UNDP coordinator, the country needs to build a pact involving the public sector, private sector, and civil society. According to her, this arrangement would be necessary to elevate Brazil to a higher income level and expand the effects of human development.
The IDHM Radar shows that the country achieved an unprecedented result in the overall indicator, but records losses when the national average is adjusted for income, race, gender, and territorial inequalities. According to the report’s data, these differences continue to interfere with the achievement of human development.
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