Mortality rate
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[[Image:Death rate world map.PNG|thumb|Crude death rate by country]]
'''Mortality rate''' is a measure of the number of [[death]]s (in general, or due to a specific cause) in some population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 100,000 would mean 950 deaths per year in that entire population. It is distinct from [[morbidity rate]], which refers to the number of individuals in poor health during a given time period (the incidence rate) or the number who currently have that disease (the prevalence rate), scaled to the size of the population.
One distinguishes:
# The '''crude death rate''', the total number of deaths per 1000 people.
# The '''[[perinatal mortality]] rate''', the sum of neonatal deaths and fetal deaths (stillbirths) per 1,000 births.
# The '''[[maternal mortality]] rate''', the number of maternal deaths due to childbearing per 100,000 live births.
# The '''[[infant mortality]] rate''', the number of deaths of children less than 1 year old per thousand live births.
# The '''[[child mortality]] rate''', the number of deaths of children less than 5 year old per thousand live births.
# The '''[[standardised mortality rate]]''' (SMR) or '''age-specific mortality rate''' (ASMR) - This refers to the total number of deaths per 1000 people of a given age (e.g. 16-65 or 65+).
In regard to the [[success]] or [[failure]] of [[medicine|medical]] treatment or [[surgery|procedures]], one would also distinguish:
# The '''early mortality rate''', the total number of deaths in the early stages of an ongoing treatment, or in the period immediately following an [[wiktionary:acute|acute]] treatment.
# The '''late mortality rate''', the total number of deaths in the late stages of an ongoing treatment, or a significant length of time after an acute treatment.
Note that the crude death rate as defined above and applied to a whole population of people can give a misleading impression. For example, the number of deaths per 1000 people can be higher for developed nations than in less-developed countries, despite standards of health being better in developed countries. This is because developed countries have relatively more older people, who are more likely to die in a given year, so that the overall mortality rate can be higher even if the mortality rate at any given age is lower. A more complete picture of mortality is given by a [[life table]] which summarises mortality separately at each age. A life table is necessary to give a good estimate of [[life expectancy]].
==Statistics==
[[Image:Infantmortalityrate.jpg|thumb|The international levels of infant mortality, depicted as the number of deaths in a thousand births.]]
The ten countries with the highest '''infant mortality rate''' are:
#[[Angola]] 192.50
#[[Afghanistan]] 165.96
#[[Sierra Leone]] 145.24
#[[Mozambique]] 137.08
#[[Liberia]] 130.51
#[[Niger]] 122.66
#[[Somalia]] 118.52
#[[Mali]] 117.99
#[[Tajikistan]] 112.10
#[[Guinea-Bissau]] 108.72
According to the [[World Health Organization]], the 10 leading causes of death in 2002 were:
<!-- ref: http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2004/annex/topic/en/annex_2_en.pdf -->
# 12.6% [[Ischaemia|Ischaemic]] heart disease
# 9.7% Cerebrovascular disease
# 6.8% Lower respiratory infections
# 4.9% HIV/AIDS
# 4.8% Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
# 3.2% Diarrhoeal diseases
# 2.7% Tuberculosis
# 2.2% Malaria
# 2.2% Trachea/bronchus/lung cancers
# 2.1% Road traffic accidents
Causes of death vary greatly between developed and developing countries. See [[List of causes of death by rate]] for worldwide statistics.
According to [[Jean Ziegler]] (the [[United Nations]] Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for 2000 to March 2008), mortality due to [[malnutrition]] accounted for 58% of the total mortality in 2006: "In the world, approximately 62 millions people, all causes of death combined, die each year. In 2006, more than 36 millions died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in [[micronutrients]]"<ref>[[Jean Ziegler]], ''L'Empire de la honte'', Fayard, 2007 {{ISBN|978-2-253-12115-2}}, p.130.</ref>.
==Factors affecting a given death rate==
*Age of country's population
*Nutrition levels
*Standards of diet and housing
*Access to clean drinking water
*Hygiene levels
*Levels of infectious diseases
*Socical factors such as conflicts and levels of violent crime
*Amount and quality of health care available
==Sources and references==
*[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html CIA World Factbook -- Rank Order - Death rate]
*[http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=19649 Mortality - The Medical Dictionary by Medterms]
*[http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html "10 Leading Causes of Death, United States" from the Center for Disease Control]
*[http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1693-mortality.html Edmond Halley, ''An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind'' (1693).]
==External links==
* [http://www.data360.org/graph_group.aspx?Graph_Group_Id=347 Data regarding death rates by age and cause in the United States (from Data360)]
* [http://www.cedat.be/ Complex Emergency Database (CE-DAT): Mortality data from conflict-affected populations]
==See also==
* [[Biodemography]]
* [[Birth rate]]
* [[Compensation law of mortality]]
* [[Demography]]
* [[Gompertz-Makeham law of mortality]]
* [[Life expectancy]]
* [[List of causes of death by rate]]
* [[List of countries by death rate]]
* [[Maximum life span]]
* [[Morbidity]]
* [[Death|Mortality]]
* [[Mortality displacement]]
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[[Category:Population]]
[[Category:Demography]]
[[Category:Epidemiology]]
[[Category:Death]]
[[Category:Actuarial science]]
[[Category:Population ecology]]
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