BRASILIA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Young Brazilians of African descent are 23.5 percent more likely to be killed than their peers of other races, showed a study released on Monday.
Out of every 100 victims of homicide, as many as 71 are Afro-Brazilians, revealed the report 2017 Atlas of Violence.
Compiled by Brazil's Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), the study analyzed reported homicides over a 10-year period, from 2005 to 2015.
Young men of all races run the highest risk of dying in a violent incident, with some 318,000 men between the ages of 15 and 29 killed in that decade, representing more than 92 percent of homicide victims.
But Afro-Brazilians have a 23.5 percent higher chance of being murdered than other races, the study found.
Nationwide, the homicide rate has increased in Brazil, rising from over 48,000 in 2005 to over 59,000 in 2015, or 28.9 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
Ipea also looked at 2017 numbers to illustrate the rise in violent crime in Brazil.
The violence is most prevalent in Brazil's poorer north and northeast regions, which saw a more than 100-percent increase in the homicide rate over the 10-year period.
The northeast state of Rio Grande do Norte, which has grown by a whopping 232 percent, also saw its homicide rate go from 13.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants to 44.9.
The country's wealthier southern region, meanwhile, saw the biggest drop in crime, including Sao Paulo state (44.3 percent) and Rio de Janeiro (36.4 percent).
According to the atlas, Altamira, in north Para state, tops the list of Brazil's 30 most violent cities, followed by Lauro de Freitas in the northeastern state of Bahia.
