Rio de Janeiro - Brazil registered one homicide every nine minutes in 2014, for a total of 58 559 violent deaths, according to a study published on Thursday by the Brazilian Public Safety Forum.
The data shows a 5-percent increase in the number of homicides in the South American country compared with the year before, when 55 878 violent deaths were reported.
The new figure pushed the average homicide rate from 27.8 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2013 to 28.9 in 2014, the year Brazil hosted the world’s largest sporting event, the football World Cup, which drew tens of thousands of tourists from around the globe.
Brazil’s north-east state of Alagoas remained the most violent, with a rate of 66.5 homicides per 100 000 people, while Sao Paulo in the south-east, the richest and most populous state, had the lowest rate, at 12.7 homicides per 100 000 inhabitants.
The homicide rate labels Brazil as a zone of endemic violence with all its 27 state falling into the category, according to the World Health Organisation, which classifies any rate over 10 homicides per 100 000 inhabitants to be endemic.
In 2014, only one third of Brazilian states saw a drop in homicides compared with 2013.
Xinhua