O Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - O IBGE – is a state agency created in the 1930s by the Vargas government to replace the DNE (National Department of Statistics) in order to carry out studies and raise quantitative and qualitative data about the Brazilian territory and its population. According to the agency itself, its institutional mission is “to portray Brazil with the information necessary for the knowledge of its reality and the exercise of citizenship”.
The institute was first conceived in 1933, right at the beginning of the Provisional Government, in a draft project initiated by Juarez Távora, then minister of agriculture. After its institutionalization in 1934, in 1936 the then Brazilian Institute of Statistics (INE), same year of creation of National Statistics Council (CNE).
The following year, the National Geography Council (CGE), which was an intendancy subordinated to INE and authorized to join the UGI (International Geographical Union). The initial intention of the CGE was to prepare cartograms and geographic information necessary for national statistics.
Finally, in 1938, the articulation of these bodies created the IBGE, thus transforming the INE into a broader entity, with the Geography and Statistics councils subordinate and acting in a autonomous. From then on, this body started to prepare several documents about the Brazilian territory, fulfilling Getúlio Vargas' intention, which was to obtain more knowledge and information about the geographic space of the country, in order to better plan and coordinate public actions, as well as to guarantee sovereignty national.
One of the most important works carried out by IBGE was the Brazilian regional division, completed in 1942. In this first division, the country was divided into North, Northeast, East, Midwest and South.
But, without a doubt, the most important of the studies carried out by the IBGE was the Census or Çenso Demographic Brazilian. It is currently held every ten years and has the quality of collecting statistical data based on residential visits to the entire Brazilian population. Although this research has existed since the 19th century, it was with the IBGE that it gained a better structure.
Over the years, this institute has undergone several reformulations and today it is increasingly well structured. Its main functions, in addition to producing statistical data, are: coordinating the reading of these data, producing graphs and maps from the information obtained, associating quantitative and mathematical information with geographic data and information, designing and structuring environmental information, disseminate bulletins and news regarding the information obtained, in addition to coordinating all statistical systems and maps of the country. Thus, this body, along with other institutions such as INPE (National Institute for Space Research), is the main source for scientists, students and, mainly, public administrators who plan and coordinate actions for structural and social improvement of the territory Brazilian.
______________________
* Image credits: IBGE
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Master in Geography
