Brazil has more doctors than ever, but still not enough

Amid one of the largest health crises in the country’s history, Brazil has never had so many doctors. In the space of a decade, the number of trained doctors has doubled, going from 230,110 in 2010 to 502,574 in 2020. But it is still not enough to treat the entire population during pandemic times.

In some states, there are doctors to spare; in others, they are harder to come by. As with many aspects of Brazilian society, the distribution of medical professionals is unequal and runs on lines of class and wealth. In the richer Southeast, several cities have a highly advantageous rate of doctors per capita, while the rate in the poor North and Northeast is drastically lower.

On a national level, Brazil has an average of 2.4 doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants. In the North region, however, this drops to 1.3 per 1,000 people, and 1.69 in the Northeast. All 16 states in the two regions fall below the national average — in Pará, for instance, there are only 1.07 doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants.

The data comes from the Medical Demography in Brazil 2020 study, a partnership...