A total of 8.7 million people in Brazil were lifted out of poverty in 2023, bringing the poverty rate down from 31.6 percent in 2022 to 27.4 percent, the lowest level since 2012, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Extreme poverty, defined as living below the line of 2.15 U.S. dollars per day, fell from 5.9 percent to 4.4 percent in the same period, said the report compiled by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Brazil's Gini index, a key measure of income inequality, remained unchanged at 0.518 in 2023, the same as the previous year. However, the IBGE noted that without the support of government social programs, the Gini index would have risen from 0.518 to 0.555.

The IBGE also revealed that in 2023, 24.5 percent of the urban population and 51 percent of the rural population lived in households receiving social programs benefits, with 42.7 percent of children and adolescents aged 0 to 14 benefiting from these programs.

Additionally, the number of young people aged 15 to 29 who were neither working nor studying dropped to its lowest level since 2012, at 10.3 million, or 21.2 percent. Among this group, 45.2 percent were black or mixed-race women.

The report emphasized that employment had a notable impact on poverty levels in 2023. While 14.2 percent of employed individuals were considered poor, less than 1 percent were extremely poor. In contrast, 14.6 percent of the unemployed were poor, and 54.9 percent were extremely poor.

"These figures indicate that poverty exists even among the employed, likely due to the social vulnerability of certain segments of the labor market. However, poverty and extreme poverty are less severe among workers compared to the unemployed," the IBGE said.