Basic Guide to the World:
Trends in Male and Female Infant Mortality Rates
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Infant mortality rate (IMR) has often been used as an indicator of human development (Gerring, Thacker and Alfaro, 2012) or population health (United Nations, 2013). Thus, a basic understanding of the world would include a study of infant mortality rates.

A great deal of research has been conducted about IMR, indicating that lower IMR is associated with higher GDP per capita and education (Pamuk, Fuchs and Lutz, 2011; Wang et al, 2014), better water and sanitation (Cheng, Schuster-Wallace, Watt, Newbold and Mente, 2012), better access to health care (Gruber, Hendren and Townsend, 2014), more foreign aid (Arndt, Jones, Tarp, 2013) having a history of democracy (Gerring, Thacker and Alfaro, 2012), and in Sub-Saharan Africa, with democratization (Kudamatsu, 2012). Wang et al (2014) attribute the reduction to higher income, more education, and to "secular trends", which include some of the above characteristics and also improved infrastructure (e.g., roadways).

However, IMR is often a problematic measure. IMR is often under reported, especially in poorer countries, because infant deaths are less likely to be reported (Anthopolos and Becker, 2010).   For example, Gonzalez (2014) reports that IMR is substantially under-counted in Cuba. In addition, the UN indicates that data sources for mortality vary in quality over time, and among countries (United Nations, 2013) and similarly, Unicef indicates that many countries do not have complete vital registration system, and so may not accurately record all births and deaths (Unicef, 2014). There are a variety of ways to deal with these problems, including statistical estimates of data quality and statistical adjustments (United Nations, 2013), and the use of multiple sources of data, such as population censuses, household surveys and sample registration systems, where vital registration systems are insufficient (Unicef, 2014).

Thus, the way to understand this report, and any report about IMR, is to not focus too much on numerical details, but to look for broad patterns, especially ones that are consistent with other indicators of human development or wellness. Where multiple indicates tell the same story, we can have more confidence in the truth of any of them.




I. Worldwide

The major trend in IMR over the past half century, worldwide, has been a steady decline. The decline has been about the same for both males and females. Male IMR has been slightly higher than has been female IMR.