Same-sex unions have increased more than eightfold in 12 years.
The number increased from 58 to 480, according to the Census.
By Bruno de Freitas Moura, reporter for Agência Brasil - The number of same-sex marriages in the country increased by 728% over a 12-year period. The 2010 Census recorded 58 such unions. By 2022, this number had reached 480. This difference represents an increase of more than eight times.
The finding is in the Nuptiality and Family supplement of the 2022 Census, released this Wednesday (5) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
In the 2010 Census, same-sex relationships represented 0,1% of the households surveyed. By 2022, this figure had risen to 0,7%.
IBGE researcher Luciane Barros Longo classifies the growth as "important" and says it reflects societal transformations in recent years.
"Over these 12 years, we've seen a greater formalization of these unions. There has also been a transformation in society, in which people have had more freedom to acknowledge their relationships," she assesses.
Profile of same-sex couples
IBGE's count indicates that, in 2022, 58% of couples were formed by women; and 42% by men.
The 480 marital unions were divided between religious marriages, civil marriages, and consensual unions, which include common-law marriages.
Common-law marriage and legal marriage have the same legal value in terms of inheritance law. One difference is that common-law marriage does not change marital status; the person remains single, divorced, widowed, for example.
The most common type of same-sex union is consensual, accounting for 77,6% of couples. This is followed by civil marriage only (13,5%), civil and religious marriage (7,7%), and religious marriage only (1,2%).
In 2011, a decision by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) equated same-sex unions with heterosexual unions. Until then, registry offices needed judicial authorization to celebrate marriages between people of the same sex.
The majority of spouses in same-sex unions were white (47,3%), followed by mixed-race (39%), black (12,9%), Asian and indigenous (0,4% each).
When classifying spouses by religion, IBGE found a majority of Catholics:
- Catholics: 45%
- Evangelicals: 13,6%
- No religion: 21,9%
- Other: 19,5%
For comparison, in the total Brazilian population, Catholics represent 56,7% of the people; and Evangelicals, 26,9%.
The Census also separates couples by education level. The majority (42,6%) had completed high school or had some college education; 31% had completed college; 13,4% had no schooling or incomplete primary education; and 13% had completed primary education or had some high school education.
