The Evolution Of Enrollments Of Students With High Abilities/Giftedness In Brazil From 2000 To 2025: National Overview, Regional Perspectives And The Paraná Case

Abstract

This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of the evolution of enrollments of students with high abilities/giftedness (HA/G) in Brazilian basic education between 2000 and 2025, drawing on microdata from the School Census and the Statistical Synopsis of Basic Education published by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research (INEP). The dataset covers all 5,570 (5,571 from 2025 onward) Brazilian municipalities across 27 federative units and five geographic regions, and incorporates the correction of São Paulo's 2019 figure, as demonstrated in Oliveira (2024). Findings show that enrollments grew from 714 in 2000 to 56,238 in 2025, an approximately 78.8-fold increase, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.1%. Despite this expansion, the identification rate remains at 0.12% of total basic education enrollments, far below the 3% to 20% range suggested by specialists. State-level analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity: Paraná has been the leading state since 2016 in absolute terms and, in 2025, accounts for 27.8% of all HA/G enrollments in the country and exhibits the highest identification rate among federative units (0.64%), ahead of the Federal District (0.52%). The Paraná case is discussed as a public-policy benchmark, supported by a network of Multifunctional Resource Rooms, Activity Centers for High Abilities/Giftedness (NAAH/S) and specific state legislation (Law 21,743/2023). The paper also ranks municipalities with the largest enrollments in each region, proposes comparative indicators, and discusses, in light of the literature, the persistent shortcomings in identification, data collection and recording systems of the School Census.