| As well as low education levels, some of the other factors I have mentioned (lack of access to health facilities, overwork, etc.) are also linked to poverty. This, for many, is the main cause of ill-health and it is to the links between poverty and disease that I now turn.
In this section I am going to take a measurable definition of poverty based on income (but do note that poverty has several dimensions other than those directly related to material wealth). This is the poverty line which is set by the World Bank at an annual income per person of US$370. The percentage of people who fall below that line in a population is known as the headcount index, so the greater the headcount index, the greater the poverty in the population.
| Country |
Headcount index (%) |
U5MR |
| Uganda |
36.7 |
170 |
| Mozambique |
37.9 |
213 |
| Egypt |
3.1 |
59 |
| Peru |
15.5 |
47 |
| Jamaica |
3.2 |
24 |
| India |
44.2 |
83 |
| China |
18.5 |
36 |
| Sri_Lanka |
6.6 |
18 |
| Pakistan |
31 |
120 |
| Poland |
5.4 |
11 |
Activity Nine
Examine the table, which shows the headcount index and under-five mortality rate for different regions of the developing world.
At first glance the table may look like a jumble of figures and make no sense. The easiest way to make sense of it and to pick out any trends is to display the data visually. To do this you need to complete this graph:
You can download a graph to plot your own answers on.
If you feel unsure about your graph-drawing abilities, I have plotted points for Mozambique, China and India to help you start. Examine, for example, the mark for China, which is bottom left in the graph. China has a headcount index of 18, so it is just before the line marking 20 as you read from left to right. On the other hand, China's under-five mortality rate is
36, so it appears just below the '40' line as you read the graph from bottom to top.
Do not try to join up the points when you have completed the activity - it is not that sort of graph.
What general trend can you observe from your graph?
We'll look at an answer on the next page
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