Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Rate, Total Fertility Rate

Infant Mortality Rate refers to the deaths of infants under age of one year per 1,000 live births. Infant Mortality Rate include Perinatal mortality, Neonatal mortality and Post-Neonatal mortality. Perinatal mortality only includes deaths from 22 weeks of pregnancy onward till 7th day after delivery. Neonatal mortality includes deaths in the first 28 days of life. Postneonatal mortality only  includes deaths after 28 days of life but before one year. IMR is different from Child mortality, which refers to death of children below 5 years per 1000 live births.

Currently Highest IMR is found in Afghanistan, followed by African countries such as Mali, Somalia etc.

Maternal Mortality Rate

Maternal mortality Rate refers to number of women who die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications per 100,000 live births in a given year.

Total Fertility Rate

Total Fertility Rate is the average number of children that a woman bears over her reproductive span. The reproductive age span of women taken for statistical purpose is between 15-49 years. A Total Fertility Rate of 2.1 is considered to be a Replacement Rate, i.e. the rate at which a given population is able to produce enough offspring to replace itself. This ratio ideally should be 2 (two parents produce 2 children) but taking into account for possible premature deaths, the replacement rate is considered to be 2.1 TFR. A TFR of above 2.1 shows increasing population, while below 2.1 shows decreasing population.

India’s TFR

India’s TFR is around 2.6. Most of the states in India have above 2.1 replacement Total Fertility Rate. Highest TFR in India is in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.