Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

Experimental Statistics

About - 2021

The legal entity of the Individual Micro Entrepreneur (MEI), established by Complementary Law no. 128, of December 19, 2008, sets up a tax regime that offers a series of benefits and simplifications to workers, among which the formalization of micro-enterprises, the easier access to social security for those who cannot afford to contribute much, and the encouragement of inclusion social stand out, in accordance with the legal requirements.

The great number of persons registeres in this tax regime, as seen in the administrative records available in the country, shows the need for regular production of statistics to monitor and throuw some light on relevant aspectsof such entreprenuers and companies, as well as to give support to policies targeted at these segments. Therefore, the IBGE presentd in this study a set of indicators on the topic, including most of, or rather all MEIs, exclusively based on administrative records from the Register of Individuals - CPF and the National Register of Legal Entities - CNPJ, both of the Special Secretariat of the Brazilian Federal Revenue; from the Central Register of Enterprises - Cempre, of the IBGE; and the Annual Report of Social Information - RAIS Employees, from the former Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

The indicators are nationally organized in four topics: characteristics of the enterprise, sociodemographic characteristics, experience in the formal labor market and demography of enterprises.

The analyses presented include the individual micro entrepreneurs both as legal entities and as individuals; their previous professional experience in the formal job market, both from the worker's perspective and from the perspective of the company they worked for; and the in and out dynamics of these entrepreneurs and companies in the market, in addition to their performance, based on the five-year survival rate of MEIs opened in 2014. Some of these indicators were also examined from a regional perspective, given the relevance of local phenomena.

The present study, it should be noted, is experimental in nature and its statistics are still being assessed because they have not yet reached a complete degree of maturity in terms of harmonization, coverage or methodology. It is expected, however, that the dimensions of analysis selected here can contribute to better quantifying and outlining the number of entrepreneurs and companies in the country.

The publication, also available on the IBGE website, includes technical notes with methodological considerations about the study, as well as its current restraints and future perspectives, and brings, at the end, a glossary with terms and concepts considered essential for understanding these first results.