Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - 2010

The Digital Atlas of Brazil 1 x 1 presents a detailed view of the main variables collected by the 2010 Population Census, with maps depicting the country's heterogeneity. In addition to the characteristics of the population (gender, age, color/race, literacy, birth registration) and households (typology, property ownership, sanitation, electricity, average per capita income, household responsibility), the Atlas also presents data on the characteristics of the household surroundings, with information on the existence or absence of address identification, public lighting, sidewalks, curbs, paving, manholes, wheelchair ramps, afforestation, open sewage and waste management.

The Statistical Grid divides the Brazilian territory into more than 2.5 million cells of 200 x 200 m in urban areas and 1 x 1 km in rural areas, allowing access to information about population (total and by sex) and number of households for various spatial divisions, apart from political-administrative units.

The Statistical Grid makes it possible to obtain data on the population of the biomes, hydrographic areas, relief and climatic zones of the country. The Statistical Grid also allows the carrying out of estimates of population affected by some climatic or environmental disaster; moreover, it can be used in the simulation of urban expansion or land use, among other technical usages. In addition, it makes it easier to compare national and international data.

The product was developed based on numerical data from the 2010 Census microdata and vector data (spatial data) from the Census mapping and The National Address File for Statistical Purposes (CNEFE). The geotechnologies adopted in the 2010 Census were essential for the development of the Statistical Grid.

The statistical grids are a way of disseminating data in small, stable geographic units. The system facilitates national and international comparisons and allows for a significant enhancement of details, both in the urban areas (with cells of 200 x200 meters) and rural ones (with cells of 1 x 1 km). It is used in Finland, Sweden, Spain, Australia and Japan.  

One of the main characteristics of the grid system is space-time stability, since the areas are independent from the political-administrative divisions (municipalities, districts), which generally are subject to changes in their physical borders due to the creation of new units, or even by the redefinition of their borders. Another independent division is that of the enumeration areas (territorial units with dimension and number of households compatible with the collection of census data), used in the census's data collection operation, but which change as population grows.

In the 1070s, the system was used for the first time in Japan, to disclose the statistics from the several surveys for the Metropolitan Area of Tokyo and, since then, both government and private enterprises have been carrying out the collection and maintenance of data in this system, now covering the whole country. In Europe, throughout that decade, other countries, mainly in Northern Europe, have also adopted this system, as Finland, which has made census data available in grids since 1970, and England, which generated a grid with census data from 1971, but did not repeat the procedure in the next censuses. The IBGE intends to use the system to disclose the next Censuses’ information.