Mortality rate

Mortality rate (the word mortality comes from mortal, which originates from Latin mors, death) is the annual number of deaths (from a disease or at general) per 1000 people. 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.

Related Topics:
Latin - Death - Annual - Morbidity rate

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One distinguishes

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• The crude death rate, the total annual number of deaths per 1000 people.
• The fetal mortality rate, the number of fetal deaths per all the births in a given year (both the live births and the dead births).
• The maternal mortality rate, the relationship between the number of maternal deaths due to childbearing and the number of live births or by the sum of live births and fetal deaths in a given year.
• The infant mortality rate, the annual number of deaths of children less than 1 year old per thousand live births.

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.

Related Topics:
Life table - Life expectancy

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Mortality rate: Statistics ►