Mortality rate (the word mortality comes from mortal, which originates from Latin mors, death) is the number of deaths (from a disease or in general) per 1000 people and typically reported on an annual basis. It is distinct from morbidity rate, which refers to the number of people who have a disease compared to the total number of people in a population.

One distinguishes:

1. The crude death rate, the total number of deaths per 1000 people.
2. The perinatal mortality rate, the sum of neonatal deaths and fetal deaths (stillbirths) per 1,000 births.
3. The maternal mortality rate, the number of maternal deaths due to childbearing per 100,000 live births.
4. The infant mortality rate, the number of deaths of children less than 1 year old per thousand live births.
5. 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 medical treatment or procedures, one would also distinguish:

1. The early mortality rate, the total number of deaths in the early stages of an ongoing treatment, or in the period immediately following an acute treatment.
2. 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 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

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The ten countries with the highest infant mortality rate are:

1. Angola 192.50
2. Afghanistan 165.96
3. Sierra Leone 145.24
4. Mozambique 137.08
5. Liberia 130.51
6. Niger 122.66
7. Somalia 118.52
8. Mali 117.99
9. Tajikistan 112.10
10. Guinea-Bissau 108.72

According to the CDC, the 10 leading causes of death in the United States in 2002 were:

1. 696,447 Heart disease
2. 557,197 Malignant Neoplasms (i.e. cancer)
3. 162,555 Cerebrovascular disease
4. 124,777 Chronic low. respiratory disease
5. 105,796 Unintentional injury
6. 73,248 Diabetes mellitus
7. 65,418 Influenza & pneumonia
8. 58,866 Alzheimer's disease
9. 40,801 Nephritis
10. 33,569 Septicemia

(out of a total population of 283,974,000 people in the U.S. at least 1 year old)

Factors affecting a country's death rate

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• Nutrition levels
• Standards of diet and housing
• Access to clean drinking water
• Hygiene levels
• Levels of infectious diseases

Sources and references

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• CIA World Factbook 2004
• Mortality - The Medical Dictionary by Medterms
• "10 Leading Causes of Death, United States" from the Center for Disease Control
• Edmond Halley, An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693).

See also

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• 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

Population | Death | Actuarial science

Taxa de mortalitat | Úmrtnost | Mortalitet | Mortalität | Tasa de mortalidad | Heriotza-tasa | Mirtingumas | Sterftecijfer | Umieralność | Taxa de mortalidade | Смертность | Úmrtnosť | Lapsikuolleisuus | 死亡率