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 the Human Development Index (HDI) which measures a country's level of human development using a composite index for literacy, life expectancy and pc GDP. Using data from the United Nations publications, 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 and HDI data for 1987 were from the United Nations report. The results showed that HDI as well as its individual components were good predictors of infant and particularly of childhood mortality. Furthermore, HDI, as well as, HDI without life expectancy, were better predictors of infant and childhood mortality than pc-GDP alone. Table

Table 1
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