Bibliometric analysis of the use of Brazilian censuses in the 21st century

scientific-literature trends and perspectives on spatial inequalities

Abstract

Over recent decades, data produced by Brazil’s population and agricultural censuses have become indispensable for social and territorial diagnostics. Yet a quantitative overview of how this statistical base is actually mobilized by the scientific community has been lacking. This study maps patterns, thematic trends, and collaboration networks in articles that relied on the Demographic and Agricultural Censuses during the twenty-first century, subsequently zooming in on research focused on spatial and regional inequalities. A bibliometric strategy was applied that comprised: a systematic search in the Web of Science and Scopus databases; extraction, cleaning, and harmonization of records; and calculation of indicators for annual output, keyword co-occurrence, citations, journal impact factors, and co-authorship networks. Results show that the number of articles grew almost five-fold between 2000 and 2024; 70 % originate from Brazilian institutions—chiefly USP, UFMG, and FIOCRUZ—and are published mainly in national journals of public health, economics, and geography. Within the subset on spatial inequality, production expands after 2015, with increasing attention to health, regional development, and socioeconomic segregation. These findings reaffirm the centrality of census microdata for academic research and territorial cohesion policies. By providing a comprehensive diagnosis of the census-based literature, the study underscores the need to broaden international collaboration and to reinforce the transfer of scientific results to society, offering an empirical foundation to guide future research agendas and funding decisions.