Brazil’s population is aging and growing at an increasingly slower rate. This is reflected in the 2025 Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), released this Friday (Apr. 17) by the Brazilian government’s statistics agency IBGE.

Last year, the country's resident population reached 212.7 million, an increase of 0.39 percent compared to 2024. The growth rate has remained below 0.60 percent since 2021. Of the total, 51.2 percent were women and 48.8 percent were men.

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The distribution of the population shows a decline in the proportion of people under 40 years of age, a group that was 6.1 percent smaller in 2025 than in 2012. By contrast, the share of older age groups has increased: those aged 40 to 49 rose from 13 percent to 15 percent, those aged 50 to 59 from 10 percent to 11.8 percent, and those aged 60 or older from 11.3 percent to 16.6 percent.

This shift is also evident in the age pyramid: between 2012 and 2025, the base narrowed and the top widened, with a decline in the population aged 39 and under.

Regional differences remain striking. The North and Northeast regions have the highest shares of young people, accounting for 22.6 percent and 19.1 percent of the population aged 13 and under, respectively, while the Southeast and South have higher proportions of older adults, with both regions reporting 18.1 percent of the population aged 60 or older.

There have also been changes in how the population identifies its skin color or race. The number of people identifying as white has declined in all regions of the country. In 2012, whites accounted for 46.4 percent of the population; by 2025, this share had fallen to 42.6 percent. The percentage of people identifying as black rose from 7.4 percent to 10.4 percent.

The North recorded the largest increase in the black population, rising from 8.7 percent to 12.9 percent. The South saw the strongest growth among people of mixed race, from 16.7 percent to 22 percent, and the sharpest decline in the share of those identifying as white, from 78.8 percent to 72.3 percent.

Rise in single-person households

The percentage of people living alone also increased. In 2025, single-person households accounted for 19.7 percent, up from 12.2 percent in 2012. The nuclear family arrangement - defined as a couple, a mother with children, or a father with children - remains the most common, representing 65.6 percent of households. However, this share has declined from 68.4 percent in 2012.

The survey shows age and gender differences among people living alone. Among men, 56.6 percent are between 30 and 59 years old, while among women, the largest share (56.5 percent) is aged 60 or older.

Regarding housing tenure, the proportion of rented properties rose to 23.8 percent, an increase of 5.4 percentage points since 2016. Meanwhile, the share of fully paid-off, owner-occupied homes fell to 60.2 percent, a decline of 6.6 percentage points over the same period.

There was also a shift in housing types: single-family homes still predominate, but their share fell to 82.7 percent, while apartments increased to 17.1 percent.