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Rationale - what it means and why it is an important measure
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Infant mortality indicates the quality of life in a city over time. Small children are the most likely to be affected by poor sanitary conditions and lack of medical care. Infant mortality is directly and indirectly linked to the quality of a city's environment (drinking water quality, air quality etc).
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How it is compiled, what data are needed
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The ratio of deaths in the current year of children under five years of age to the average annual number of births in the previous five-year period. The percentage of female and male children that die before reaching their fifth birthday.
This indicator should be measured annually.
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Measurements and units
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Infant mortality, female (%)
Infant mortality, male (%)
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Possible temporal and spatial format
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trend charts, maps
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Reference to methodology resources
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UNCHS. http://www.istanbul5.org/guidelines/indicators
WHO, 1997. Healthy Cities Indicators: Analysis of Data from Cities Across Europe.
UNCHS, 1995. Monitoring Human Settlements: Abridged Survey, Indicator Programme.
WB, 1999. Development Data Group: World Development Indicators on CD-ROM. World Bank Publications, USA.
OECD, DAC. Development Indicators.
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Objective
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To improve social level and city environment.
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Targets, benchmarks, reference values
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The death rates for infants and children under the age of five years should be reduced in each developing country by two-thirds of the 1990 level by 2015. (UN conference in Cairo)
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References to examples of application
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Health status indicators in Johannesburg, South Africa: http://www.csoe.co.za/csoe/html/nonjava/Env%20Health/driving.htm
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Other comments / background
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Every year, 11 million children in developing countries die before they reach their fifth birthday, many during the first year of life. Seven in ten of these deaths are due to acute respiratory infections (mostly pneumonia), diarrhea, measles, malaria or malnutrition - and often to a combination of these conditions. The WHO Division of Child Health and Development (CHD), in collaboration with ten other WHO programmes and UNICEF, has responded to this challenge by developing the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy, http://www.who.int/chd/publications/imci/ration.htm.
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