Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics

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The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) is Brazil’s official agency for statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information. It runs Brazil’s national census every ten years and collects data on people, households and living conditions such as age, income, literacy, education, occupation and health.

IBGE was created on May 29, 1936, as the National Institute of Statistics by Mário Augusto Teixeira de Freitas and was renamed IBGE in 1938. It became a federal agency in 1967 and is part of the Ministry of the Economy, working within the Secretariat of Planning, Budget and Management. The headquarters are in Rio de Janeiro.

Today IBGE employs about 11,850 people and has a 2022 budget of roughly R$2.45 billion (the Demographic Census 2022 budget is R$2.29 billion). The current president is Marcio Pochmann.

IBGE has a network of units in Rio de Janeiro and 27 Centers for Documentation and Information Dissemination (CDDIs) across Brazil, plus the National School of Statistical Sciences. Its main parts are:
- Directorate of Research (planning and coordinating statistical work)
- Department of Geosciences (cartography and the national geodetic system, plus natural resources and environment)
- Department of Informatics
- Center for Documentation and Information Dissemination (dissemination of data and coordination of CDDIs)

The institute also maintains the Roncador Ecological Reserve near Brasília.

IBGE follows the UN System of National Accounts to produce economic statistics, including GDP and related indicators, published quarterly. All data are confidential and used only for statistical purposes by law.

Censuses are the best-known activity. A modern census has been conducted since the 19th century, every ten years, with the latest cycles delayed by events like the COVID-19 pandemic. Between censuses, IBGE makes annual population estimates for every municipality to support funding. There are also agricultural censuses, conducted roughly every ten years, to collect information on farms, forests and aquaculture. The most recent agricultural census released results in 2018.