PJ Media

Tom W. wrote ” ……the number of deaths per 1000 people can be higher for developed nations than in less-developed countries, despite standards of health being better in developed countries. This is because developed countries have relatively more older people, who are more likely to die in a given year, so that the overall mortality rate can be higher even if the mortality rate at any given age is lower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_rate”

I could have gone on Wikipedia and edited their entry on Mortality to prove the point that anyone can write anything in Wikipedia, and it cannot be cited as an authority.

If you look at worldwide data on mortality vs. life expectancy, you will see a clear tendency for nations with higher mortality rates to have lower life expectancies, and vice versa.

Here are the data, from the World Bank, in order of mortality rate for the year 2000:

Death rate (per 1,000) vs. Life expectancy at birth, years
Kuwait 2.2 76.58
Brunei_Darussalam 2.7 76.17
Macau 3.1 78.87
Qatar 3.2 74.79
Bahrain 3.3 73.09
Oman 3.3 73.58
United_Arab_Emirates 3.4 75.29
Costa_Rica 3.9 77.48
Singapore 3.9 77.65
Saudi_Arabia 4 72.51
Jordan 4.2 71.52
Palestine 4.3 72.12
Malaysia 4.4 72.54
Venezuela 4.4 73.35
Belize 4.4 74.12
Tajikistan 4.6 68.77
Syria 4.6 69.73
Libya 4.6 71.03
Solomon_Islands 4.8 68.57
Hong_Kong 4.9 79.82
Paraguay 5 70.36
Panama 5 74.55
Antigua_and_Barbuda 5 75.06
Nicaragua 5.1 68.88
French_Polynesia 5.1 72.96
Mexico 5.2 72.97
Philippines 5.3 69.27
Maldives 5.4 68.29
Algeria 5.4 71.04
New_Caledonia 5.5 73.16
Albania 5.5 73.99
Tunisia 5.6 72.1
Chile 5.6 75.65
Colombia 5.7 71.59
Korea,Republic_of_ 5.7 73.15
Cape_Verde 5.8 68.78
Viet_Nam 5.8 69.05
Iran 5.8 69.08
Uzbekistan 5.8 69.74
Dominican_Republic 5.9 67.33
Ecuador 5.9 69.59
Sri_Lanka 5.9 73.14
Micronesia 6 67.97
Fiji 6 69.22
El_Salvador 6 70.15
Saint_Lucia 6 71.09
Azerbaijan 6.1 71.75
Israel 6.1 78.37
Samoa 6.3 69.08
Lebanon 6.3 70.4
Netherlands_Antilles 6.3 75.86
Honduras 6.4 66
Mongolia 6.4 66.96
Morocco 6.4 67.47
Bahamas 6.4 69.28
Armenia 6.4 73.63
Jamaica 6.4 75.34
Turkmenistan 6.5 66.34
Egypt 6.5 67.46
Turkey 6.5 69.7
Peru 6.7 69.31
Mauritius 6.7 71.67
Guatemala 6.8 65.22
Suriname 6.8 70.21
Iceland 6.8 79.52
Seychelles 6.9 72.34
Trinidad_and_Tobago 6.9 72.55
Grenada 7 72.49
Saint_Vincent_&_the_Grenadines 7 72.92
Australia 7 78.93
Tonga 7.1 70.99
Brazil 7.2 68.07
Vanuatu 7.2 68.36
Thailand 7.2 68.82
New_Zealand 7.2 78.19
China 7.3 70.26
Cuba 7.3 76.47
Indonesia 7.4 66.03
Kiribati 7.5 61.87
Kyrgyzstan 7.5 67.3
Canada 7.5 78.93
Puerto_Rico 7.6 76.08
Malta 7.6 78.03
Argentina 7.8 73.85
Pakistan 7.9 62.96
Bosnia_and_Herzegovina 7.9 73.33
Comoros 8.2 60.97
Ireland 8.2 76.33
Cyprus 8.2 77.93
Japan 8.2 80.72
Greenland 8.3 65.29
Macedonia 8.4 72.8
Bolivia 8.6 62.56
Luxembourg 8.6 77.04
Switzerland 8.6 79.7
Iraq 8.8 61.06
Bangladesh 8.8 61.19
India 8.8 62.8
Barbados 8.8 75.42
United_States 8.8 77.06
Georgia 8.9 73.03
Spain 9 78.15
Guyana 9.1 62.89
Netherlands 9.1 77.87
France 9.1 78.86
Papua_New_Guinea 9.2 58.59
Bhutan 9.2 62.22
Sao_Tome_and_Principe 9.2 65.05
Finland 9.5 77.46
Austria 9.5 78.23
Slovenia 9.7 75.26
Slovak_Republic 9.8 73.05
Uruguay 9.8 74.38
Norway 9.8 78.6
Poland 10 73.28
Nepal 10.2 58.86
Kazakhstan 10.2 65.47
Belgium 10.3 78.21
Italy 10.4 78.67
Lithuania 10.5 72.62
Portugal 10.5 75.65
Germany 10.5 77.43
Greece 10.5 77.91
Sweden 10.5 79.65
Czech_Republic 10.6 74.82
Korea,Dem._Rep._ 10.7 60.73
United_Kingdom 10.8 77.33
Ghana 11.1 56.87
Yugoslavia 11.1 72.46
Yemen 11.2 56.48
Moldova 11.3 67.76
Denmark 11.3 76.36
Romania 11.4 69.86
Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis 11.4 70.82
Sudan 11.5 56.17
Croatia 11.6 73.28
Cambodia 11.7 53.81
Myanmar 11.9 56.1
Madagascar 12.1 54.66
Senegal 12.7 52.31
Haiti 12.8 53.23
Estonia 12.8 70.6
Eritrea 12.9 52.03
Benin 13 52.99
Laos 13.1 53.72
Gambia 13.2 53.28
Hungary 13.5 71.25
Latvia 13.6 70.38
_Congo,Republic_of_the_ 14.1 51.32
Belarus 14.1 68.11
Bulgaria 14.1 71.55
Kenya 14.2 46.97
Cameroon 14.2 50.05
Mauritania 14.5 51.66
Ukraine 14.8 68.29
Swaziland 14.9 45.62
Russian_Federation 14.9 65.34
Togo_ 15 49.3
Equatorial_Guinea 15.5 50.98
Gabon 15.5 52.72
South_Africa 16 47.81
Nigeria 16.2 46.83
Chad 16.3 48.47
Congo,Dem._Rep. 16.6 45.75
Cote_d’Ivoire 16.8 45.82
Guinea 16.9 46.31
Lesotho 17 43.96
Namibia 17.1 47.15
Tanzania 17.2 44.35
Liberia 17.2 47.15
Somalia 17.5 48.14
Zimbabwe 17.7 39.93
Djibouti 17.8 45.81
Angola 18.8 46.58
Uganda 19.2 42.13
Burkina_Faso 19.2 44.22
Niger 19.3 45.71
Central_African_Republic 19.5 43.47
Botswana 19.9 38.97
Burundi 19.9 41.96
Mali 20 42.27
Guinea-Bissau 20 44.88
Ethiopia 20.1 42.29
Mozambique 20.5 42.4
Zambia 21.4 37.97
Afghanistan 21.5 42.96
Rwanda 21.6 39.94
Sierra_Leone 23.4 39.19
Malawi 24.2 38.8

I am sorry I don’t know how to post a scatter plot of these data, but I assure you the trend is quite obvious, that there is an inverse relationship between mortality and life expectancy.

Also, please note that the mortality rate for Iraq in 2000 was 8.8 per thousand, more than 50% higher than Iran’s 5.8 for the same year, both according to World Bank figures.