(From San Pablo) The latest census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reveals the magnitude of a persistent drama in Brazilian society: child marriage. According to data released this month, 34,000 children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14 live in married couples in Brazil. Eight out of 10 people, about 77%, are girls, and the majority are in an informal relationship. Only 7% are married civilly and in the church, 4.9% civilly only, and 1.5% only in the church.
Brazilian law prohibits the marriage of young people under the age of 16, except in exceptional cases recognized by the courts. Those between the ages of 16 and 18 must have the legal permission of a parent or guardian.
“Data collection is based solely on the statements of the persons interviewed.”Márcio Mitsuo Minamiguchi of the Demographic Research and Analysis Department at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics told the G1 news website. According to IBGE technician Lucienne Aparecida Longo, questions on this topic are asked from the age of 10.
“The institute wants to get an image of the country, not just what is legal and illegal, to pinpoint where there are problems where public policy can intervene to reduce or eliminate non-compliance.”Longo declares his advance to G1.
The census also highlights that the majority is made up of mestizos (20,414), whites (10,009), blacks (3,246), indigenous peoples (483), and yellows (51). The highest number was recorded in San Pablo state, with 4,722 children and adolescents, representing 0.02% of those in stable unions. Proportionally, however, the state with the highest number is Amazonas, with 0.11% (or 1,672) of unions involving young people in this age group. In 2023, Brazilian media reported that Hissam Hussein Dehaini, a 65-year-old man and mayor of Araucaria, Paraná, had married a 16-year-old girl.
The problem of teenage marriage is usually related to the problem of premature birth, another hot topic in Brazil. A study published last July by the International Center for Health Equity at the Federal University of Pelotas in Rio Grande do Sul found that one in 23 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 is a mother. Between 2020 and 2022, more than 1 million young people in this age group gave birth to a child. For girls between the ages of 10 and 14, that number exceeded 49,000.
In this last age group, according to the law, any pregnancy is considered the result of rape of a vulnerable person. According to the study’s researchers, issues such as poverty and lack of opportunity are the main reasons behind this type of teenage pregnancy.
“Brazil is failing to protect young women. We need public policies that address the root causes of the problem, including poverty, school dropout, and lack of access to services.”Research director Alcio Barros told Agencia Brasil. The social impact is huge, both from an economic perspective.
A study by Planisa and DRG Brasil, a consulting firm specializing in healthcare cost management, found that hospitalizations among adolescents cost the public health system 254.5 million reais ($48.1 million) from 2022 to 2024. In fact, teenage pregnancy is riskier than adult pregnancy. According to this same study, in Brazil, 21.63% of pregnant adolescents had complications compared to 13.38% of adult women, and severe cases were 6.21% compared to 4.31% of adult women. Among the diseases registered in 3.3% of pregnant adolescents, syphilis occurs.
Other IBGE data shows that 23.1% of young women aged 14 to 29 dropped out of school due to pregnancy. Beyond the percentages, the census paints a picture of a country caught between the promise of evolving schools and public systems and the reality that it still fails to provide greater opportunity, especially for the poorest sectors of the population.
In early November, the President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva It has ratified a new law establishing the National System of Education (SNE), which has already been renamed by the Brazilian media as the New SUS, an acronym for the National Health System. Its purpose is to create a more coordinated mechanism between the federal, state, and local governments to improve the quality of education and reduce inequalities. This means that educational programs are not being changed, but rather aimed at standardizing public policy on this issue and overcoming the fragmentation of decentralized and short-term efforts that have existed to date.
In particular, the SNE is responsible for standardizing teacher training and communication between teachers and students, which is one of the biggest obstacles in the provision of public education. But there was no shortage of criticism.
First, the effort is delayed by at least eight years, having been scheduled for 2016 by a separate law that approved the National Education Plan in 2014. Another major unknown is funding and distribution among the various actors involved.
“Every time something is done in public policy without taking fiscal considerations into account, there is a risk that laws are enacted that may be stale, or that local governments are unable to comply and end up in an unpleasant situation.”Equidade president Claudia Costin told the O Globo website. Info, Stanford University and affiliated research institutes.
However, other experts have criticized the centralization of the project. “Local adaptation is essential for applying policies correctly and achieving goals.
It is important to have balance within an integrated system to achieve key objectives, but also provide the flexibility needed for each network to find answers to its own needs. Ivan Pereira of Mind Lab, an organization specializing in educational methodologies, told O Globo newspaper:
Educational challenges are numerous and vary by region of Brazil. If the rate of functional illiteracy, or difficulty reading and writing, in a country is 29%, the impact is greater on black and indigenous people.
Three out of ten Brazilians between the ages of 15 and 64 can barely read words or short sentences, and are unable to identify numbers in everyday life, such as supermarket prices or phone numbers. According to Anna Helena Altenfelder “Denies fundamental rights and jeopardizes the exercise of civil rights,” said the director of Cempec, a non-governmental organization that develops projects to improve public education, the stagnation of literacy, or the level of functional illiteracy.
“Being a citizen means participating in a variety of cases and social spheres.” That’s why it’s essential. “Learning and reading skills enable them to know themselves, participate in community life and enter the world of work.”Altenfelder told the G1 news website.
Brazil’s educational lag affects all aspects of school life, including university. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study, titled Education at Glance 2025, found that 51% of Brazilians who enroll in university do not graduate until three years after their regular enrollment, compared to an average of 30%.
Experts say the reasons are multiple, ranging from the poor quality of education they received while in school to a lack of financial resources and post-school prospects. “Very few students enter school with a sufficient learning level, which affects their ability to continue their studies. They enter school with large gaps in the knowledge they need to acquire,” Ernesto Martins Faria, director and founder of the non-governmental organization Interdisciplinariede e Evidências no Debate Educativo (Iede), told the G1 website.
In Brazil and all other countries analyzed in this study, women who enroll in three-year degree courses are more likely than men to complete their degree on time or within three years of their expected date. Paradoxically, however, it is precisely young women who represent the majority of the so-called “neutral” generation, those who neither study nor work.
In Brazil in 2024, almost a quarter (24%) of young people aged 18 to 24 were neither working nor studying, compared to 29% of women and 19% of men. “We have the problem of teenage pregnancy and caring for young siblings. Full-time school culture is not yet mainstream in Brazil, so someone has to stay at home and take care of young children. Usually, if it’s not the mother, it’s the older sister.” Costin explains.
Finally, a worrying fact that has emerged in recent weeks is the rise in child labor. According to IBGE data, at least 1.65 million Brazilian children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17 are in this situation, representing 4.3% of the total. Child labor is prohibited in Brazil up to the age of 13. The law only allows apprenticeships between the ages of 14 and 15, and textbook work between the ages of 16 and 17, but prohibits unhealthy, dangerous, or nighttime activities, which often conflict with Brazilian reality.
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