São Paulo in Statistics: Where People Live

In the so-called megacities such as Shanghai, Mexico city, Hong Kong or São Paulo we often talk about overcrowding but what does this actually mean?

Is all of the city overcrowded? How are people spread throughout the city?

One way or analysing this is to look at residential density. Below is a map from LSE cities which measure the population of each square kilometre of various cities around the world and attributes a column height in proportion to the number of people permanently living in that area.

Of course it doesn't account for movement but still it gives us an idea of where the greatest density of people is in each cities and it turns out it varies hugely between cities.

The shape of New York or Istanbul is clearly impacted by a geographical constrain i.e. the sea. Public transport can affect where people live as well as cultural traditions and historical urban planning.

In São Paulo's case we can see that there is a relatively high density spread almost evenly across a large part of the city. This is in fact uncommon. Most cities such as New York or Shanghai have extreme residential density in the central areas of the city and progressively fewer people living in the outer regions.

This possibly reflects the high rise buildings which have been allowed to be built irrespective of the region as opposed to London for example, which has very strict rules on multi storey buildings outside of its financial square mile.

Click here for more statistics on São Paulo.

São Paulo in Statistics: Prison Overpopulation

São Paulo prisons: 81% overbooked

The prisoner population of the state of São Paulo is 179,000. To put that in a context which can be understood by non-Brazilians it is equivalent to the prisoner population of all of England and Wales. It also represents a extremely high proportion of the 496,000 prisoners currently behind bars in Brazilian jails across the country. Said in a different way, more than 1 in every 3 Brazilian prisoners are being held in a São Paulo jail.

The statistics above already hint at a serious overpopulation problem. Add to that the fact that country level prison population has grown to such an extent it has almost doubled between 2000 and 2010 and that the judicial system is slow and  inefficient to the point of having 40% of all prisoners still awaiting trial and you will have some sense of the chronic overpopulation problem.

In São Paulo 15 additional prisons or provisional detention units are already under construction. Unfortunately unless there is a dramatic change in policing, criminality or judicial process that will simply not be enough. Recent studies have estimated that São Paulo would need an additional 93 units over and above the 15 under construction just to correct current place to prisoner deficit. Disturbing though it is, this of course doesn't take into account the projected increase in future prionser numbers.

There are currently 121 new prisoners detained for every 100 released in São Paulo. And the situation is already critical, São Paulo is the state with the highest prisoner to place ratio at 185,447 prisoners for 102,242 places, an 81% overcrowding rate.

The video below is an excerpt from the documentary Under The Brazilian Sun and gives us a more direct sense of what overcrowding means and feels like in practice. It directly contradicts the argument a Paulistano gave to me to last year in his support for the introduction of the death penalty; that life in Brazilian prisons was far too easy and comfortable.

The rest of the documentary is also on youtube and is quite an eye opener although be warned some sections such as the one on torture and violence are very graphic.

More statistics on São Paulo

Homicide rate in São Paulo hits lowest levels in over 30 years

The Sangari Institute has just released a so called map of violence in Brazil covering data from 1980 to 2010 and the most interesting data is no doubt from São Paulo:

Above are comparative results from the last 10 years for Brazil, São Paulo state, São Paulo city and municipalities, and finally the interior of the state (excluding São Paulo city). The interesting data is how the city and its immediate surroundings has transformed from having 60,2 homicides per 100,000 people in 2000 right down to last year’s 15,6 per 100,000. For a population the size of São Paulo that is statistically significant and an incredible drop. Few would have predicted 10 years ago that São Paulo would have four times fewer murders. It has gone from practically twice the national average to nearly half the national average whilst continuing to grow in absolute population size.

Looking at the data more closely we can see it is a complete reversal of the trend up to that point. São Paulo started out in 1980 with a homicide rate similar to its current one but greatly outstripped the already increasing national average year on year until reaching its peak in 1999 reaching levels over 65% higher than the already high national average. Frightening statistics. Escalating lawlessness? An inevitable product of gross inequality? A side effect of the uncontrolled creation of a megalopolis? Either way, 1999 would have been a difficult time to predict any major reduction or even leveling off.

But the data doesn’t lie, here’s the year by year rate again by Brazil, São Paulo state, São Paulo city and municipalities, and finally the interior of the state (excluding São Paulo city):

And in more visual format (check out the purple line which is São Paulo city):

Paradoxically 10 years ago there were more municipalities which didn’t register any homicides at all which means there are now much fewer homicides but they are more dispersed. And counter-intuitively, although the more populous areas have higher rates in general at the top end the municipalities with 200-500,000 population now have a higher rate than ones with over 500,000:

Food for thought and definitely not what the tabloid media, human rights activists, or paranoid affluent Paulistanos would have you believe...

For more statistics on São Paulo: 

http://www.discoveringsaopaulo.com/p/sao-paulo-in-statistics.html

For the full report from the Instituto Sangari:

http://www.institutosangari.org.br/instituto/

São Paulo in Statistics: where are we from?

The IPEA (Institute for Applied Economic Research) just pulled demographic data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). It shows where adult residents of different cities were born by federal state.

It shows that barring Brasilia, which is a new city and has a huge migrant population, São Paulo is the city with the highest proportion of adults born outside the state, 46% in total. Bahía, in the North East, is the state which contributes the most to São Paulo city's population followed by Minas Gerais and another North Eastern state Pernambuco. Interestingly, although central São Paulo feels quite multicultural, people born in foreign countries such as myself still only contribute 1% of the city's adults.

Of the remaining 54% we can assume from population growth figures that a large part were not born in the city itself either but in the surrounding towns of the state of São Paulo.

See more statistics on São Paulo here.