Cameroon - Mortality rate, neonatal (per 1,000 live births)

The value for Mortality rate, neonatal (per 1,000 live births) in Cameroon was 25.70 as of 2015. As the graph below shows, over the past 25 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 40.70 in 1990 and a minimum value of 25.70 in 2015.

Definition: Neonatal mortality rate is the number of neonates dying before reaching 28 days of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.

Source: Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.

See also:

Year Value
1990 40.70
1991 40.50
1992 40.40
1993 40.20
1994 40.00
1995 39.70
1996 39.30
1997 38.60
1998 37.50
1999 36.10
2000 34.70
2001 33.50
2002 32.50
2003 31.70
2004 31.10
2005 30.70
2006 30.20
2007 29.60
2008 29.00
2009 28.50
2010 28.10
2011 27.50
2012 26.90
2013 26.50
2014 26.10
2015 25.70

Development Relevance: Mortality rates for different age groups (infants, children, and adults) and overall mortality indicators (life expectancy at birth or survival to a given age) are important indicators of health status in a country. Because data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. And they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries.

Limitations and Exceptions: Complete vital registration systems are fairly uncommon in developing countries. Thus estimates must be obtained from sample surveys or derived by applying indirect estimation techniques to registration, census, or survey data. Survey data are subject to recall error, and surveys estimating infant/child deaths require large samples because households in which a birth has occurred during a given year cannot ordinarily be preselected for sampling. Indirect estimates rely on model life tables that may be inappropriate for the population concerned. Extrapolations based on outdated surveys may not be reliable for monitoring changes in health status or for comparative analytical work.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The main sources of mortality data are vital registration systems and direct or indirect estimates based on sample surveys or censuses. A "complete" vital registration system - covering at least 90 percent of vital events in the population - is the best source of age-specific mortality data. Estimates of neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality tend to vary by source and method for a given time and place. Years for available estimates also vary by country, making comparison across countries and over time difficult. To make neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality estimates comparable and to ensure consistency across estimates by different agencies, the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME), which comprises the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Division, the World Bank, and other universities and research institutes, developed and adopted a statistical method that uses all available information to reconcile differences. The method uses statistical models to obtain a best estimate trend line by fitting a country-specific local regression model of mortality rates against their reference dates. Neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality rates capture the effect of gender discrimination better than neonatal and infant mortality rates do. Where female child mortality is higher, girls probably have unequal access to resources.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Mortality