Neonatal deaths link to child deaths
Comparing Child deaths (aged 1-4 years), per capita with Number of neonatal deaths, per unit of GDP across 191 countries, 2024–2024.
- Rank correlation
- +0.92
- Holding size constant
- +0.88
- Countries compared
- 191
- Period
- 2024–2024
What might link these
The strong correlation between neonatal deaths per unit of GDP and child deaths per capita might be due to underlying healthcare system quality or access to medical care. A careful reader should consider that factors like healthcare expenditure or education levels could be confounding variables. Poverty is a likely confounder that could influence both indicators.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. This correlation does not necessarily imply that reducing neonatal deaths would directly impact child deaths, as other factors may be driving both trends.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.