[en] 12 Brazilian population censuses were published by IBGE, the Brazilian Statistical and Geographic Institute, between 1872 and 2010. The population figures were assigned, among other things, to territorial categories. These categories are a filter from which the geographical distribution of the population can be mapped. In the history of Brazilian censuses, we have identified three types of territorial categories: grid, place, urban/rural division. Territorial categories reveal the way a power divides and therefore takes charge of its territory. This corresponds to the relationship that the grid has with human settlements. Depending on whether the grid, the place, or the city in between takes precedence over other territorial divisions, we can characterize a state, an era, a policy. Thus, H. Le Bras has clearly demonstrated that the census was generally a showcase for the State. In this flood of statistical tables, "the only data surely used is the total population in each place". M. Foucault's panoptic state is reflected in these exhaustive tables where the entire territory is gridded: no individual leaves the net. As noted by A. Desrosières, this statistical language implies defining categories that make everything comparable. But these categories are subjective: they were invented according to the questioning of a society, a context, as C. Topalov has shown. In Brazil, for example, the grid dominates in censuses from 1872 to the present day. It is a major tool for the appropriation of the territory which endures but also adapts. Indeed, with the return of democracy in 1988, the grid became a tool for the emancipation of communities that wanted to form a municipality (municipio). A territorial division generally imposed in a "top-down" movement is then used in a reverse "bottom-up" movement. From the 1940 census onwards, the State recognized in each municipality the separation between urban and rural areas. From the 1980s onwards, and especially during the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the IBGE introduced its own territorial categories into the statistical tables, which nevertheless remained embedded in the older administrative categories. This superimposition demonstrates the recent increase in the complexity of settlement and the unsuitability of administrative categories to identify these new forms of land use. The practical problems of census organization require the definition of a fine census grid based on the identification of places, the localidades. These original census data published by the IBGE make it possible to draw up a very precise cartography of the distribution of the population. On the contrary, they show the specific objectives of the territorial categories produced by the State, at particular moments of its deployment, as well as the limits of their use for information or research purposes. Brazil is a unique and exemplary case. On one hand, the territorial categories are specific. On the other hand, all three types of categories are used by countries all over the world, not necessarily in combination and sometimes only one or two of them. Each type reveals the behavior model of a State with regard to its territory, which should be interpreted according to the specific context of each country. Moreover, regardless of the type of category favored, grid and place are inseparable. They are constantly defining and updating each other.

[fr] Au Brésil, les statistiques de population ordonnées par leur localisation géographique révèlent les différentes catégories territoriales utilisées par l'IBGE, l'institut statistique brésilien, depuis le premier recensement de 1872 jusqu'au dernier en 2010. L'article met en évidence trois systèmes de découpages politico-administratifs : le maillage, les lieux de peuplement, la distinction urbain/rural. Ils questionnent les enjeux de l'évolution des modes de découper l'espace. Ces trois découpages sont exclusifs et se combinent difficilement. Cette disjonction illustre les différents modes d'appréhender l'espace par le pouvoir, ainsi que la difficulté des instituts statistiques nationaux et donc des Etats, à embrasser la complexité des formes de peuplement.