Decomposition of official population projections in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil’s population has continually changed over time. However, the effects of each demographic component on official population projections are still unclear. In this research, we replicate the Population Projections Revision 2018 of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics using a projection matrix model and the cohort-component method by sex, age and geographic regions. Thereafter, we established four alternative scenarios to decompose the official benchmark scenario into four demographic effects (fertility, age structure, mortality, and migration) and one residual effect. The results reveal that fertility and age structure effects have been the main drivers of the population dynamics between 2010 and 2060. On the one hand, the negative effect of fertility below replacement level has been mostly offset by the still positive effect of the age structure, even across regions in the country. On the other hand, age structure effect has been decreasing over time. By 2048, the effects of age structure, mortality and migration will no longer counterbalance fertility effects, resulting in a population decline.