| Hello, *|NOME|* At the end of November, IMDS presents an unprecedented work at the national level: it is the construction of the life expectancy table for whites and blacks and for men and women, the result of another partnership between the institute – this time with researchers Cássio Turra and Laura Andrade, from the Center for Development and Regional Planning of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Cedeplar/UFMG). The teams worked more than six months to reach the results.
As is known, the IBGE recently revised the estimate of life expectancy of Brazilians at birth: 76.6 years, on average, for those born in 2023. Women are expected to live 79.8 years and men 73.3 years, a difference of 6.5 years. The life expectancy of men and women was also mapped by the IBGE by Units of the Federation, revealing differences in the age pyramid between the regions of the country.
But what does the IBGE say about life expectancy by skin color or race? What is the current difference in life expectancy at birth between blacks and whites? Does this life expectancy vary throughout the life of individuals? Do black and white men and women reproduce the difference observed when comparing only men and women? IMDS’s work aimed to investigate these issues and estimate the life expectancy tables by sex and skin color/race. The results, released this week by the press (here) and which can be accessed in full on our website (here), indicate that white women born between 2010 and 2019 will have a life expectancy of 80.06 years, and black women, 76.01 years. White men will have a life expectancy of 74.52 years, while blacks will only have 68.65 years, a difference of 5.87 years. This difference, however, decreases according to age. When they reach 40 years of age, the difference in life expectancy drops to 2.96 years among women and to 3.0 years among men. When they reach 60 years of age, the difference reduces to 1.98 years for women and 1.54 years for men. And when they reach 70 years of age, the difference, for both men and women, is approximately 1 year (1.37 for women and 0.98 for men). What does this indicate? That the difference in life expectancy at birth is strongly determined by the first 30 years of life between whites and blacks. Among men, 10% of the difference is due to mortality in the first years of life (0-4 years), and about 38% derives from the higher probability of death of black men in the 15-34 age group: 83.6% of the difference in mortality at these ages is attributed to violence, curiously called "external causes" in the SUS. It is undeniable that an effort to contain violence tends to benefit blacks, substantially reducing the difference in life expectancy and inequality in well-being. It should be noted that homicide rates according to skin color/race are heterogeneously distributed in the territory, but very little pronounced. According to the 2024 "Atlas of Violence", the homicide rate of blacks in Salvador is 70.2 per one hundred thousand and, in the city of São Paulo, 4.1 per one hundred thousand. In relation to women, the difference in life expectancy at birth between white and black women is 4.05 years (respectively 80.06 years and 76.01 years), a disparity concentrated between 35 and 59 years of age, the highest mortality range among black women caused by neoplasms and respiratory diseases, compared to white women. And, as in the case of men, black women also have higher mortality in the 0-4 age group. A reinforcement of the medical follow-up of the poorest, from pregnancy to adulthood, depends on the efficient combination of social assistance and primary care, to identify the most vulnerable and act in a timely manner. By gathering data on inequality in life expectancy between whites and blacks, the urgency of improving public policies aimed at overcoming the country's structural problems becomes evident. Policies focused on the most vulnerable can effectively make the identified gap disappear or at least be sharply reduced. Soon we will bring new information on the subject. See you in the next "IMDS Letter"! Paulo Tafner CEO |
