The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) begins today (20) the collection of the Urban Survey of the Surroundings of Households, which will mobilize more than 22,000 census supervisors until July 12. This is the starting point for the 2022 Census operation. However, interviews will not yet be carried out and data will be collected only through observation.
“It is not the beginning of the door-to-door visit, but it is the first public operation to collect information”, said the director of Geosciences at IBGE, Claudio Stenner.
The Urban Survey of the Surroundings of Households is considered essential because all the more than 326 thousand census sectors, distributed across 5,570 Brazilian municipalities, are visited. From this work, information on urban infrastructure considered relevant for public administration is obtained. In addition, the accumulated data will make it possible to update maps and identify roads, which will later contribute to the work of census takers.
The census supervisors will go through all the streets of each census sector that is under their responsibility. They must fill out questionnaires including data related to the ten investigated questions: road capacity, paving, manhole and storm drain, street lighting, bus or van stop, bicycle signage, existence of sidewalk, obstacle on the sidewalk, ramp for wheelchair users and trees. .
According to the IBGE, the data collected may support the formulation of public policies in urban areas, aiming at improving the population’s quality of life. In addition, the information will be able to offer a current picture of urban and environmental issues in cities, allowing comparisons.
As in the 2010 Census, it will be possible to demonstrate, for example, which Brazilian capitals have the highest proportion of households in wooded areas. The results of this edition will only be released next year, along with all other information collected in the 2022 Census.
Historic
The surroundings of households were surveyed for the first time in the 2010 Census. On that occasion, a Territorial Information Survey (LIT) was also carried out, aimed at gathering data from areas of urban precariousness. Since then, new information has been collected in a sample form from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua), carried out periodically by the IBGE.
In the midst of planning for the next Census, the IBGE decided in 2017 that the LIT should be unified with the surrounding survey. The current questionnaire was defined in 2019 and applied experimentally in the municipality of Poços de Caldas (MG). In 2021, there were new tests in the cities of Paulo de Frontin (RJ) and Nova Iguaçu (RJ).
There is a reason why this work is done by census supervisors. Afterwards, they will supervise the tasks of the census takers who will carry out the interviews with the residents in the same census tracts. “That’s why it’s important for them to know the area well,” notes Stenner.
This is the first time that the bus or van stop, bicycle signage and obstacle on the sidewalk will be investigated. In addition, in an unprecedented way, all villages and favelas will be visited.
According to Stenner, in the 2010 Census about half of them, which are more densely populated, were left out due to methodological difficulties. To solve the problem in this edition, a new methodology will be used by IBGE to identify the route in labyrinthine areas and without GPS signal.
Census operation
Brazil usually carries out its demographic census every 10 years. It is the only household survey that covers all 5,570 municipalities in the country. The objective is to offer a portrait of the Brazilian population and household conditions. The information obtained supports the elaboration of public policies and government decisions related to the allocation of financial resources.
The new edition, which should have taken place in 2020, was postponed twice: first due to the covid-19 pandemic and then due to budget difficulties.
From the beginning, this census operation was embroiled in controversy. In 2019, the IBGE announced the reduction of quizgenerating criticism from academic sectors.
Home visits to carry out the interviews should start in August. A little over two weeks ago, a decision by the Federal Court of Acre determined the inclusion of questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in the questionnaire. In response, the IBGE filed an appeal and published a statement claiming that it is not possible to comply with the request and that, if the determination is maintained, the 2022 Census will need to be postponed again.
