Despite some recent gains, Indians are poorer than whites, blacks, and pardos **.** The poverty profile based on Census data for 2000 reveals a large difference in the levels of well being among different racial/color groups in Pará (see Table 5.1 and Appendixes E and F). The Indians is the group that experienced the highest incidence of poverty in 2000. Of Indian heads of households, 61 percent had a per-capita income below the poverty line of R$81 per month. More Indians living in rural areas experienced poverty than their counterparts in urban areas, 76 percent compared to 39 percent and a larger share of Indians experienced poverty than their share in total rural population. Moreover, in 2000, the average income of Indians was one-third of whites’ income and around 50 percent lower than the income of pardos. Indians, such as the Anambés, Xipaia-Kuruaia, and Surui Aikeware face more than income poverty. They also lack food and often face hunger mainly caused by increasing water pollution, small territories, and rapid deforestation that lead to scarcity of animal protein (Ricardo Verdum).

Blacks and pardos experience far more poverty than whites **.** The P0 reveals that 51 and 47 percent of households headed by blacks and pardos respectively are extremely poor compared to 33 percent of households headed by whites (Table 5.1 and Appendixes E and F). However, in rural areas, blacks and pardos are only slightly more likely to experience poverty than whites.

During 1993-2001, the falling trend in headcount poverty benefited all groups in urban areas except employers that experienced a small increase (2.2 percentage points). Poverty fell 5 percentage points among households headed by whites and 8 and 10 points, respectively, among those headed by blacks and pardos, which is much less than in the North region as a whole. In the North region, P0 for black and mulatto head of household fell 18 and 0.5 percentage points respectively. Hence, in 2000, 29 and 33 percent of the blacks and mulattos were poor in the North of Brazil, slightly less than in Pará (see Appendix E).

Education levels are strongly related to poverty. For example, being able to read and write is important in determining the likelihood of being in poverty. In Pará, the P0 is 40 percent for household heads that are literate, and 61 percent for those that are not. These headcounts are high compared to the national averages of 19 and 39 percent, respectively. The difference in P0 between the literate and illiterate is much lower in rural areas, 56 and 62 respectively, indicating the literacy may be less poverty reducing in rural then urban areas in Pará. The negative relationship between years of education completed and poverty is strong. There appears to be a relatively larger difference in P0 between household heads with no education (59 percent are poor) and household heads with 4-8 years of primary education (40 percent are poor). Household heads that have completed primary schooling and are enrolled or have finished secondary education are much better off (20 percent are poor) than those with only primary education. Of the household heads with more than 12 years of schooling only 4 percent were extremely poor in 2000. For all levels of completed education, P0 is higher in rural than urban areas and the difference is rapidly increasing with level of education. These findings indicate that education is a very important key to poverty reduction in Pará.

The gap in poverty between the educated and less educated is widening in urban areas. Since 1995, the more educated are experiencing less poverty, while the less educated are getting left behind. For each level of education (lower primary only, upper primary 32