Overview
- Reports published Friday by Poder360, using February 2026 data, show 38.6 Bolsa Família beneficiaries for every 100 formal job records, a level unchanged since August 2025.
- Brazil counts 48.8 million people with formal jobs and 18.8 million families on the program, a ratio that compares family enrollments to individual work permits.
- Dependency remains concentrated in the North and Northeast, with 2,639 municipalities and nine states—Maranhão, Pará, Piauí, Bahia, Paraíba, Amazonas, Alagoas, Acre and Amapá—showing more beneficiary families than formal jobs.
- In 2025 the ratio fell as record hiring expanded formal work and a federal eligibility review, known as a pente-fino, removed 2.1 million families from the rolls.
- The program’s exit ramp, the 2023 Regra de Proteção, kept 2.4 million families in March receiving half benefits for up to a year after income rises, which helps people keep new jobs without losing all support at once.