Lula Turns 81 While Official Record Lists a Different Birth Date

Overview

• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrated his 81st birthday on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, two days after winning re-election on Sunday, October 25.
• His civil birth certificate records 6 October 1945 as his date of birth, a date that differs by 21 days from the date he and his family mark.
• Instituto Lula and Lula’s brother Frei Chico say the mismatch resulted from the family registering several children years after their births and a registry clerk confusing the dates.
• Lula has long publicly preferred the family date of October 27 and said in a 2000 interview that he trusts his mother’s memory over the official document; the institute reiterated the registration story in 2023.
• The discrepancy reflects a common mid-20th-century pattern in Brazil’s rural Northeast of delayed or informal registrations and carries symbolic weight as Lula prepares to begin a fourth presidential term on January 5, 2027.