On Infant Mortality in the context of Life Expectancy and Adolescent Fertility

Worldwide Infant Mortality generally follows socio-economic expectations given current levels of economic development. More developed countries are better able to maintain appropriate levels of nutrition, medical care and clean water to ensure that children survive past the age of 5. Some countries have very uneven development where remote rural families are unable to obtain either of the three key elements of survival, nutrition, medical care or clean water. The graph below shows the average national mortality rate between 2011 and 2016.

This data along with life expectancy yielded interesting results. Infant Mortality rates at the low end (ie around 10 deaths per 1000 births) and the high end (ie around 100 deaths per 1000 births) both show a strong relationship between Infant Mortality and life expectancy. When Infant Mortality rates rise, life expectancy falls. The global average Infant Mortality rate is around 35. In that range the correlated relationship weakens significantly.

Adolescent Fertility seems to bear a strong relationship to Infant Mortality, but less so in the developed countries and even less in the transitional countries.

Plotting only the relationships (grouped histogramatically by average rate) we see the greatest variability in the transitional phase countries (which accounts for much of the worlds population). Further study could delineate cleavages between and amongst the transitional nations and predictors for the underdeveloped nations that will be next to establish the social infrastructure to discourage adolescent fertility and eliminate infant mortality.