ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses data and information for policies and planning on housing precarity and precarious settlements, considering the experience of Brazilian metropolises and their public policies. The majority of international debates about data on housing and cities focus on the availability and accuracy of information, considering the main technical elements associated with urbanism, infrastructure, housing stocks and production. The chapter starts by discussing some important elements associated with the definitions of informal urban areas, and their consequences for data and information for planning and policies associated with precarity. It starts by presenting the variability of the phenomena and the types of urban and housing precarity in Brazil and other Latin American countries. The chapter discusses the availability of data and the main challenges to providing detailed and accurate information for these areas, as well as some tentative solutions. Information for planning in Brazil may come from administrative data, from specific surveys or from periodic population surveys such as the Census.
