Race Segregation in Brazil: A GIS Approach

Ernesto F. Amaral, University of Texas at Austin

In Brazil, a major problem is related to population segregation by socioeconomic status in major cities. Some studies have been looking for this kind of segregation, using information on income and education level. However, these studies have been ignoring race characteristics of the Brazilian population that could determine in which neighborhoods people are living. The main point of this research is the analysis of how the Brazilian population is segregated by socioeconomic status and race in Recife, Belo Horizonte, and Porto Alegre. Results indicate that among those groups of census tracts that have a majority of whites, there is a high proportion of the population with at least a high school degree. On the other hand, among those groups of census tracts that have a majority black and brown population, most of the population has low educational achievements.