Answer:   Here are the figures.

1.       Singapore                                  2.28  deaths/1,000 births

2.       Sweden                                     2.77  deaths/1,000 births

3.       Germany                                   4.20    deaths/1,000 births

4.       Spain                                        4.48    deaths/1,000 births

5.       Australia                                    4.76    deaths/1,000 births

6.       United Kingdom                         5.22    deaths/1,000 births

7.       Cuba                                         6.45    deaths/1,000 births

8.       United States                             6.63    deaths/1,000 births

9.       Gaza Strip (Palestine)                 18.35  deaths/1000 births

10.     South Africa                               44.42  deaths/1000 births

11.     Rwanda                                     86.61  deaths/1000 births

12.    Angola                                        180.21 deaths/1000 births

How did you get on? Did you get most of them in the right order? Did any of the figures  surprise you?  Can you think of any reasons why a particular country might have high or low infant mortality rates?

Answer:    As you might expect, the lowest rates of infant mortality are in richer, northern industrialised countries, such as Sweden, Australia, Spain and Germany, while the highest infant mortality rates are in the very poorest countries in Africa.  

However, you may have been surprised by some of the figures. For example, the UK is only in 6^th place, below Spain and Singapore. Also, Cuba, although a poor country has a lower infant mortality rates than the United States, the richest country on the planet. The most shocking statistics are for Angola  where a staggering 180.2 babies out of a 1000 die before the age of 1 – over 30 times the numbers of babies dying in the UK.

In the UK we are used to good ante and post natal care,  we have enough to eat and we have access to clean drinking water. People in the poorest countries do not, which is why so many babies die young. The United States is a country of contrasts: while there are extremely wealthy people, there is also desperate poverty. With no NHS the very poorest people have almost as little access to health care as those living in Africa.  Cuba, in contrast, has always given priority to its health services with the result that its infant mortality rates are similar to the UK’s, despite it being a very poor country.