Population Growth and an Analysis of the Poverty in the Brazilian Medium-Sized Cities

In the four past decades, demographic researchers noticed the emergence of a type of cities defined as medium-sized cities, playing an important role in the regional imbalance in the Brazilian urban universe. Using the data taken from IBGE (2010), this study finds that the country counts 245 medium-sized cities with populations ranking from 100.000 to 500.000 inhabitants, which are experiencing a remarkable demographic performance by showing larger population growth rates than the country as a whole. In fact, this kind of demographic size entitles such cities to fill up the position of regional poles, functioning as a leading base for balanced economic growth and territorial organization of activities, providing good accessibility to services of general economic interest, as an integrated system connected to stronger metropolitan areas. This paper aims at a twofold objective. First, it analyses the demographic growth and social dynamics in medium-sized cities, presenting a brief review on the literature which explores the features of the urban poverty in the Brazilian context. Second, it approaches the subject of inequalities and spatial poverty distribution, using a demographic methodology and data from the National Population Census of 2010, in an attempt to better understanding both processes.