Brazil Census Finds Consensual Unions Now Outnumber Formal Marriages

Overview

• Consensual cohabitation accounted for 38.9% of conjugal unions in 2022, surpassing civil‑plus‑religious marriages at 37.9%, with civil‑only at 20.5% and religious‑only at 2.6%.
• Overall, 51.3% of Brazilians aged 10 or older lived in a conjugal union, up from 50.1% in 2010, reflecting about 90.3 million people.
• Households formed by same‑sex couples rose to about 480,000, up from 58,000 in 2010, an increase of roughly eightfold.
• People who had dissolved a union reached 18.6% nationwide, with Rio de Janeiro highest at 21.4%, while Santa Catarina (58.4%), Rondônia (55.4%) and Paraná (55.3%) led in the share living in unions.
• The census recorded 34,200 children aged 10–14 in unions, mostly girls, with IBGE stressing the figures are self‑reported, preliminary sample estimates and flagging unions under 16 as rights violations.