Census documentation

2026-09-18

The {censobr} package includes a few functions to help users navigate Brazilian census data, its variables and methodology.

Function
Documentation
Type
Years available
1960 70 80 91 2000 10 22
data_dictionary() Data dictionary (codebook) Microdata X X X X X X X
Census tract aggregates X X X X X X
questionnaire() Questionnaires Long and short X X X X X X X
interview_manual() Interviewer’s manual (Enumerator Instructions) - X X X X X X X

All of these functions download supporting documents in either .html or .pdf format, and open the documents on a web browser. Like all other datasets in {censobr}, these support documents are downloaded and cached locally the first time when users run the function. This way, when users need to take a peak at the documentation again, the functions simply load local files, making it super quick and convenient.

Data Dictionary

The data_dictionary() indicate the definition of each variable, and the meaning of their categories in the case of categorical variables. The function covers two types of dictionary, passed in the dataset argument: "microdata", which describes the variables of the microdata (sample portion of the census) and is available for every Brazilian census since 1960 (1960, 1970, 1980, 1991, 2000, 2010 and 2022), and "tracts", which describes the variables of the census tract-level aggregate data and is available since 1970.

# Microdata variables
data_dictionary(
  year = 2022,
  dataset = 'microdata'
  )

# Census tract-level variables
data_dictionary(
  year = 2022,
  dataset = 'tracts'
  )

Questionnaires

Oftentimes, it is really important to understand the structure of the questionnaire used in surveys. The questionnaire() function includes the questionnaires used in the data collection of all Brazilian censuses since 1970.

Here, users need to pass the year parameter indicating the edition of the census of interest and whether they want the 'short' questionnaire that is used to interview all households, or the 'short' one that is used in the sample component of the cesus.

# short questionnaire
questionnaire(
  year = 2022, 
  type = 'short'
  )

# long questionnaire
questionnaire(
  year = 2022, 
  type = 'long'
  )

Interview manual

Finally, the interview_manual() function downloads and opens on a browser the “Manual do Recenseador”, i.e. the manual of instructions for IBGE’s census takers (recenseadores) on how to collect the census data.

Manuals for all censuses since 1970 are available.

# 2022
interview_manual(year = 2022)

# 1960
interview_manual(year = 1960)