favela

favela, in Brazil, an informal urban settlement that is built without oversight from public authority and is typically located within or on the outskirts of the country’s large cities, especially Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Favelas vary widely in size, population density, and infrastructure, but they are generally characterized by self-built housing, incremental construction, and limited access historically and currently to state-provided services and land tenure contracts. Although the term is often associated with poverty, many scholars emphasize that favelas are socially and economically diverse communities with long-standing cultural, political, and economic significance in Brazilian urban life.

Origin and development of favelas

Some scholars trace the origins of favelas in Brazil to settlements formed by formerly enslaved people in the late 19th century, but the most significant expansion occurred during the large wave of rural-to-urban migration from the 1940s to the 1970s. As Brazil’s cities expanded rapidly and the supply of affordable, formally regulated housing failed to keep pace, many rural migrants established settlements on the urban periphery. From 1950 to 1980 the number of people living in favelas in Rio de Janeiro alone increased from about 170,000 to more than 600,000, and by the early 21st century it was estimated that there were as many as 1,000 favelas there. According to the 2022 census, 8 percent of Brazil’s total population lived in favelas.

The origins of the term favela are debated. A widely accepted explanation traces it to Morro da Favela, a hillside in Rio de Janeiro where soldiers who had fought in the Canudos War (1896–97) established settlements while awaiting payment from the Brazilian government (which they never received). The hill was named for the favela plant (Cnidoscolus quercifolius), native to northeastern Brazil. As the community of soldiers endured and similar informal settlements appeared elsewhere in the city, the term favela gradually came to be applied more broadly to self-built, irregular urban neighborhoods.

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Architecture: The Built World

In modern times, favelas are found throughout Brazil but are most commonly located on the peripheries of large metropolitan areas or on steep hillsides, as is the case in many well-known communities in Rio de Janeiro. Housing in these areas typically develops through incremental construction: Initial dwellings may begin as simple self-built structures, and over time residents often replace them with more durable materials such as brick, concrete blocks, and sheet metal. This gradual process gives many favelas a dense and irregular built form.

Rocinha—Brazil’s largest favela, with more than 72,000 residents in 2022—is one example. Often described as a “city within a city,” it reflects both the density and the level of local organization found in many of these communities. Across many favelas such as Rocinha, the absence of the state has led residents to create their own systems for water, electricity, sewage, and other essential services, effectively supplying public goods that elsewhere are provided by government agencies. In response to this lack of state presence, many communities have also developed local favela community organizations that coordinate resources, support collective needs, and take on roles that, in other contexts, are typically carried out by public and state authorities.

Favelas and the state in contemporary Brazil

The absence of the Brazilian state has contributed to a unique environment in which favela residents cultivate innovative strategies for daily survival, community organization, and cultural expression. Local community organizations in favelas often step in to provide social support, organize public goods and services, and reinforce community identity. Yet the absence of effective and consistent state institutions also has a darker dimension: In many areas power vacuums have enabled armed groups—including drug-trafficking organizations and paramilitary milícias—to exert control, regulate local markets, and impose their own forms of governance, often with significant consequences for residents’ safety and autonomy. Public security remains one of the most contested dimensions of state-favela relations. Although governments across different periods in Brazil have pursued a range of strategies to reduce violence and reestablish state presence, policing in many communities continues to be marked by intermittent operations, high levels of force, and concerns about accountability. These dynamics have contributed to persistent tensions between residents of favelas and state authorities.

In late 2025 these tensions intensified after a major police operation targeting the Brazilian criminal organization Comando Vermelho in Rio de Janeiro’s Penha and Complexo do Alemão favelas resulted in the deaths of more than 130 people—the deadliest raid in the state’s history. The scale of force used during the operation, and the high number of civilian casualties, drew widespread scrutiny from human rights organizations, community groups, and international observers, prompting renewed calls for reforms to policing practices and greater oversight of security operations in favelas.

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