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IBGE Census Maps How Brazilians Commute, With Cars Leading and Most Trips Under 30 Minutes

A new census module mapping how Brazilians get to work exposes stark regional and racial gaps in access to fast, reliable travel.

Overview

  • Cars are the principal mode for 32.3% of workers, followed by buses (about 21%), walking (17.8%) and motorcycles (16.4%), according to the Censo 2022 release.
  • Roughly 57% of employed Brazilians reach work in 6 to 30 minutes, while about 8.66 million spend over an hour and around 1.3 million endure more than two hours.
  • Longest commutes cluster in major metros, with 11 of the 20 large municipalities with the highest share of 2+ hour trips in Rio de Janeiro state; Queimados tops the list at 12.5%.
  • Modal use and commute burden track inequality: white and higher‑educated workers use cars far more and tend to have shorter trips, while Black and lower‑income workers rely more on buses and face longer travel times.
  • Regional patterns stand out, with the South showing the highest car use (45.9%) and the North the highest motorcycle share (28.5%), while high‑capacity transit remains marginal (metro/train ~1.6%, BRT 0.3%).