Mortality levels, patterns, trends and differentials in Africa

Abstract

This volume of the African Population Studies Series contains estimates undertaken by ECA population division using primarily, although not exclusively, census data from countries included in the studies. The focus of these studies has been to assess the extent to which there are sub-regional variations in mortality on the continent and to identify areas where government action is most likely to have considerable impact on efforts to reduce mortality. It is our hope that these studies, and the Life Tables annexed to them, would provide useful reference material for policy makers, planners and research scholars. This issue of the African Population Studies Series is devoted to analysis of mortality levels, patterns, trends and differentials for twelve African countries, using data from population censuses and demographic surveys conducted in 1960s and 1970s, and complemented, wherever possible, with data curled from medical statistical records. The studies in this series respond to the recommendations in the KPA on the need for multi-disciplinary research on morbidity and mortality. The studies focus on a selected number of countries in three sub-regions and further studies on infant and childhood mortality will follow.