Race and Independent Living Among Elderly Brazilians Since 1980

INTRODUCTIONThis paper describes independent living among elderly Brazilians 65+ since 1980. Elderly people constituted a small part of Brazil's populations initially, only 4 percent in 1975, but will constitute a significant proportion of the population by 2050, fully 18 percent (United Nations, 2002:152). It is thus of importance to observe that elderly Brazilians are increasingly likely to live by themselves, either totally alone, if not married, or with their spouse only, rather than with other family members. Overall increase in independent living among Brazilians 65+ in the last couple of decades rose from almost 27 percent in 1980 to 32 percent in 2000. Table 1. Such increase is consistent with what has occurred elsewhere and with theoretical ideas about family modernization: that the traditional extended family weakens while the nuclear family household becomes more common (e.g. Cowgill, 1986; Goode, 1963; Ruggles, 2001).However, the overall increase in independently living mainly reflects change among White Brazilians who constitute a little over half the population. Black and Brown elderly Brazilians experienced little overall change. Among White elderly Brazilians, an estimated 28 percent lived either alone or as a couple in 1980 compared with 36 percent in 2000. Among Black elders, less than 29 percent lived independently in both 1980 and 2000, and among Browns there were almost no changes over time. Table 1. Yet similar statistics could, be used to describe change among educational or income groups (with little change among people with little income and/or no education and substantial change among people with more income and/or education). Thus it is reasonable to ask whether the racial difference is really due to other, demographic, geographical and/or socioeconomic factors, or whether there might also be something else tied more directly to race itself causing a difference.There are thus two interrelated questions. One has to do with the existence of racial differences in independent living at any one time. The question might be for instance: "Does the fact that Black and Brown people in Brazil generally have lower incomes than White explain the fact that they have differential coresidence patterns when old?" The second has to do with differential change. A question could be: "Can differential change in geographical or socioeconomic factors account for the differential change among racial groups?".We focus on racial differences in Brazil because, similar to the United States, Brazil may be one of the most racially diverse countries in the world, and because racial differences there are still a major source of social inequality. Despite the fact that slavery was legally abolished in 1888 in Brazil, there continue to be significant racial differences in infant mortality, educational opportunity, employment and wages (e.g., Cunha, 1994; Henriques, 2000, 2001; Reichmann, 1999; Silva. 1999; Silva & Hasenbalg, 1999; Wood L Dachs, 2002), suggesting that such factors do explain racial differences in Brazil. Our study tries to ask what the situation is there with independent living among elderly people. Can the racial difference in living arrangements among elderly people there be explained by socioeconomic factors alone or does race matter as well?Race in BrazilBrazil may be one of the most racially diverse countries in the world although its concept of race is different from elsewhere. For example, race in Brazil is assessed through looks rather than ancestry, there is a whole host of color shades between white and black, and most censuses and surveys in Brazil rely on a person's own definition of his/her race. …