POVERTY AND INCOME INEQUALITY: AN ANALYSIS FOR THE IMMEDIATE REGION OF ILHÉUS-ITABUNA, BAHIA, BRAZIL

Abstract

This article focuses on a new regional subdivision, the Region of Immediate Influence of Ilhéus-Itabuna consisting of 22 municipalities, and seeks to verify whether poverty, from a multidimensional perspective, occurs differently in rural and urban areas. It also analyzes whether poverty indicators are higher in places with greater income inequality. The adopted methodological procedures were the Theil-L Index, the Williamson Coefficient, and the Multidimensional Poverty Index. The data used refer to the urban and rural areas of the immediate region of Ilhéus-Itabuna, Bahia, from the census sectors of the 2010 Demographic Census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The results show that poverty is spread across the analyzed region, but is more concentrated in rural areas, which have higher poverty rates. In urban areas, however, which offer greater diversity of superior services, these poverty rates are lower. In the main municipalities of the studied region of Ilhéus and Itabuna, income inequality levels are higher in urban areas. The set of factors observed reveals the need to reformulate public policies for the region, especially in terms of creating jobs improving income distribution, infrastructure, the provision of basic health services, and increasing the educational level of the population.