(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Social vulnerability here was reduced 27 percent between 2000 and 2010, according to a new study published Tuesday, although concerns remain about the situation in the country's poorer north and northeast regions.
The Brasilia-based Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) found Brazil's Social Vulnerability Index had fallen from 0.446 in 2000 to 0.326 a decade later.
Under the index - which is based on 16 parameters including health, education, income and urban infrastructure - a higher score indicates a more vulnerable society.
The new overall score means Brazil moves from the "high social vulnerability" band to one of "moderate vulnerability".
The number of Brazil's 5,565 municipalities with "high" or "very high" vulnerability fell significantly from 3,610 to 1,981, while the number with "low" or "very low" vulnerability jumped from 638 to 2,326 in the decade surveyed.
Despite improvements, the study also highlighted the significant gap between the richer south and southeast regions of Brazil, and the poorer north and northeastern regions.
The report, which also assigned social prosperity scores to municipalities, said approximately 80 percent of very low scores were shown to be in the northeast, where fewer than 3 percent of municipalities achieved the "high" or "very high" brackets.
The IPEA said in the report that the void between the poorer north-northeast and the richer south-southeast "demonstrated the existence of a polarized country, with very different realities, needs and priorities that should be thoroughly investigated in order to overcome still extant regional inequalities".
Municipalities with the worst scores were concentrated in the northern Amazonian states of Acre, Amazonas, Pará, Amapá, and Rondônia, and the northeastern states of Maranhão, Alagoas, Pernambuco, and Bahia, the report said.
Successive governments have worked to reduce poverty, and in 2014 officials said the country had cut the number of Brazilians living in extreme poverty by 89 percent in the preceding 10 years through social programs, including the Bolsa FamÃlia stipend given to poor families on condition that all their children go to school and receive vaccinations.
The United Nations said in April that Brazil had managed to lift 25 million people from moderate or extreme poverty between 1990 and 2009, and that number of Brazilians living daily on $2.5 or less had fallen from 10 percent to 4 percent between 2001 and 2013.
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