Uncertainty driven by polarization: the sentiment fueling Latin America’s HDI skid

For the first time since its creation in 1990, the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) has declined for two consecutive years. Nine out of every ten countries around the world registered a drop in their HDI score in either 2020 or 2021, and over 40 percent saw decreases in both years. Brazil was one of them. 

Latin America’s largest economy lost five positions in 2020 and one in 2021; it is now 87th on a list of 191 countries analyzed by the United Nations Development Program (UNPD). In HDI terms, Brazil has basically returned to 2014, when the country’s development index sat at 0.754 — a greater decline than the global average, which has fallen back to 2016 levels.

The index comprises life expectancy at birth, education, and income per capita. The closer a country is to 1, the better its HDI. 

The Covid pandemic affected all three variables, but the drop in life expectancy — from 75.3 to 72.8 years — was what pulled Brazil’s score down the most compared to 2019. 

Latin America was the region that declined the most comparing pre and post-pandemic periods. It lost, in one year, 30.4 percent of its pre-Covid progress since 1990. Furthermore, in 2021, the region was still 18.5 percent behind its pre-pandemic gains. 

“The reasons why Latin America was more affected are still to be assessed. But it is fair to think of widespread inequalities as an important factor: we have...