Data from 2019 shows that 72.5% of Brazil’s 212 million-strong population own their own home, but that figure used to be higher, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Around a fifth don’t have any documentation to prove ownership, suggesting the properties have been handed down through families or that the ownership itself could be precarious. Despite many owning their residences, a lot of people don’t feel safe within their own walls – among the lowest income neighbourhoods, twice as many people feel unsafe in their own homes compared to the wealthy. For example in Amapá, 48.1% of people felt unsafe, whereas the figure was lowest in Santa Catarina at 9.9%.

Apartments are common among the wealthy in Brazil’s urban areas, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. At the same time, favelas are the informal settlements often occupied by the country’s poorest residents.

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