Since 1945, life expectancy in Brazil increased every single year. By 2019, it had hit 76.7 years, increasing at a rate of five months a year since the end of World War II. But the Covid-19 pandemic broke this 74-year streak, killing 195,000 Brazilians last year alone.
The health crisis has reduced the average Brazilian life expectancy by 1.94 years. The fall was 72 percent bigger than in the U.S., which has recorded the highest absolute number of victims but has seen cases fall due to mass vaccination.
And these reduced expectations were even more pronounced in some states. In Brasília, Amazonas, Amapá, Roraima, and Espírito Santo, people are expected to live three years shorter than 2019 averages. Life expectancy in Amazonas was set to hit 73 last year, but it ended up as just 69.5 years.
The pandemic widened regional inequalities in Brazil. Before 2020, the difference between the states with the highest and lowest life expectancies was 8.54. One year later,...
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