Brazil’s 2022 census was postponed from 2020 because of COVID-19 and budget issues.
Brazil’s national census is conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, known by its Portuguese initials IBGE. The 2020 operation depended largely on in-person household visits, making it unsafe and impractical during the COVID-19 emergency. IBGE initially moved the census to 2021 and redirected its budget toward pandemic response.
The delay continued after the census budget was sharply reduced in 2021. Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court later ruled that the government had to ensure the census took place, leading to the eventual 2022 operation. Enumeration began on 1 August 2022, rather than the originally intended 2020 schedule.
The completed census recorded 203,080,756 people, making it Brazil’s thirteenth national population census. The delay matters because census results guide public funding, electoral representation, infrastructure planning and estimates of how Brazil’s population is distributed among its states and municipalities.