Childhood mortality rates differ for boys and girls



IT MIGHT be thought that in poor countries, girls would live harder lives than boys. It is true that they can be less well treated within the family and often go to school for shorter periods (though most at least go to school). But child-mortality figures show a more complex picture. In Africa childhood mortality among boys is far higher than among girls, according to new figures from UNICEF that break down mortality by sex for the first time. There, 114 boys under five die for each 1,000 live births, compared with only 103 girls. This reflects biology: in all societies, boys tend to be more vulnerable to childhood diseases. That is also the reason why in almost all countries more boys are born than girls: nature's ratio is about 105 to 100. But India is highly unusual: it is the only country (bar the Solomon Islands) where more girls die an early death than boys (64 to 59). It is also a country that practices sex-selective abortion—of female fetuses—and it is possible that some abortions may be counted as infant deaths. China also practices sex-selective abortion and its child-mortality numbers are unusual, too. They are roughly balanced (14.8 for boys; 14.4 for girls). That is very different from the pattern in Africa, Latin America and eastern Europe, where male mortality is higher. The other parts of the world where there is no big discrepancy between the mortality rates of boys and girls are all rich ones in Europe, America and Japan. They have hardly any child mortality, so the rates for both sexes are close to zero.

