Per capita gross domestic product (pc GDP) has been shown to be a good predictor of infant mortality rate. In 1990, the United Nations Development Programme devised HDI which measures a country's level of human development using a composite index for literacy, life expectancy and pc GDP. We assessed how well HDI and its individual components predict infant and childhood mortality. Mortality data for the final analysis corresponded to the 22 countries which reported all five measures of infant (neonatal and postneonatal) and childhood (1-4 and 5-, 9 years) mortality in the period 1985-1990. Table

Table 1
Full size table

MR: mortality rate, 1: literacy rate of individuals 15 years and older; 2: logarithm value of pc GDP at purchasing power parity in current U.S. dollars; 3: HDI-le, HDI without life expectancy. The results shows that HDI as well as its individual components are good predictors of infant and particularly of childhood mortality. The 1-4 and 5-9 year mortality rates are better indicators for general well-being of a country than the infant mortality rate.