ABSTRACT
Using national World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates of mortality in the form of life expectancy at birth, the most widely used and most reliable index of mortality (see Box 4.1), and relating it to World Bank data on GNP per capita, the strength of the relationship has long been identified, and it has formed the basis for many formulations of poverty identification and alleviation for at least 50 years. A similarly shaped pattern is evident when mortality levels are set against the rather more broadly based HDI of the UN. There seems to be a threshold of life expectancy at birth for both men and women at over 70 years reached by middle-and upper-income countries, but below that threshold there is a clear tailing away, with the lowest life expectancies associated with the poorest countries, those with the lowest HDIs.
