Poverty and infant deaths

The two monetary or direct indicators most used to define extreme poverty are the international poverty line and the national poverty line. The former includes all the people in the world with less than1.90$ per person per day; the latter differs in each country, as it includes the population that lives below a cut-off point established by governments according to their economic situation.

In 2015 18% of the world’s inhabitants and 47% of the population in Subsaharan Africa were below the international poverty line. The concordance of the two indicators may differ, but the greatest and highest rates are in African countries. In Guinea Bissau 67% of its inhabitants live below the international poverty line, and this rises to 69.3% who live below the national poverty line.

Infant mortality, in its different stages, is an indirect indicator of poverty. Guinea Bissau, which became independent in 1970, has the highest rates in Africa: 30 of every 1,000 of less than 28 days old, 61 of every 1,000 under one year old and 93 of every 1,000 under five years old.