Bulletin of the World Health Organization

The lifetime risk of maternal mortality: concept and measurement

John Wilmoth

Volume 87, Number 4, April 2009, 256-262

Table 3. Estimates of the lifetime risk of maternal death in 2005 for the world as a whole and for various regional and developmental groupings calculated using four risk measures, LR0, LR1, LR2 and LR3, derived using either the maternal mortality ratio (MMRatio) or the maternal mortality rate (MMRate)

Region or development groupa Maternal deathsb,c Live birthsb (in thousands) Women aged 15–49 yearsb(in thousands) MMRatioc(per 100 000) MMRatec(per million) TFR NRR T15–T50 ℓ15/ℓ0 LRMMc (%) based on MMRatiod
 LRMMc (%) based on MMRatee
LR0 LR1 LR2 LR3 LR1 LR2 LR3
World 535 898 133 321 1 665 534 402 322 2.60 1.11 30.4 0.904 1.25 1.04 0.91 1.01 1.13 0.98 1.08
More-developed regions 1 482 13 319 299 715 11 5 1.57 0.75 34.2 0.990 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02
Less-developed regions 534 416 120 002 1 365 819 445 391 2.82 1.19 29.9 0.894 1.51 1.26 1.08 1.21 1.37 1.17 1.31
Least developed countries 246 575 28 239 180 863 873 1363 4.86 1.79 25.3 0.816 5.10 4.25 3.20 3.92 4.77 3.46 4.23
Other less-developed countries 287 841 91 764 1 184 956 314 243 2.51 1.10 31.1 0.918 0.95 0.79 0.70 0.77 0.85 0.75 0.82
Less-developed regions (excluding China) 526 627 102 692 1 004 246 513 524 3.23 1.34 29.2 0.884 1.99 1.65 1.41 1.59 1.84 1.53 1.73
Sub-Saharan Africa 270 474 29 900 174 797 905 1547 5.31 1.84 23.0 0.795 5.76 4.80 3.41 4.29 5.42 3.56 4.47
Africa 276 135 33 511 216 429 824 1 276 4.83 1.74 24.3 0.813 4.77 3.98 2.93 3.61 4.47 3.10 3.81
Eastern Africa 87 105 11 570 66 680 753 1 306 5.41 1.90 23.1 0.812 4.89 4.07 2.93 3.61 4.57 3.02 3.72
Middle Africa 58 834 5 063 24 688 1 162 2 383 6.18 2.07 22.1 0.760 8.61 7.18 4.92 6.48 8.34 5.28 6.94
Northern Africa 10 952 4 777 50 501 229 217 3.04 1.36 31.9 0.939 0.84 0.70 0.64 0.68 0.76 0.69 0.74
Southern Africa 5 199 1 263 14 396 412 361 2.81 1.02 22.8 0.902 1.39 1.16 0.86 0.96 1.26 0.82 0.91
Western Africa 114 045 10 838 60 164 1 052 1 896 5.59 1.90 23.1 0.772 7.05 5.88 4.10 5.31 6.63 4.37 5.66
Asia 242 002 75 751 1 024 809 319 236 2.41 1.06 31.4 0.919 0.92 0.77 0.70 0.76 0.83 0.74 0.81
Eastern Asia 9 229 19 329 409 909 48 23 1.68 0.76 33.1 0.956 0.10 0.08 0.07 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.08
South-central Asia 189 569 39 686 408 753 478 464 3.04 1.30 30.2 0.890 1.74 1.45 1.27 1.43 1.62 1.40 1.57
South-eastern Asia 34 761 11 422 152 378 304 228 2.42 1.10 32.3 0.949 0.88 0.73 0.69 0.72 0.80 0.74 0.78
Western Asia 8 443 5 314 53 770 159 157 3.23 1.45 32.2 0.941 0.62 0.51 0.47 0.50 0.55 0.51 0.54
Europe 931 7 359 183 222 13 5 1.42 0.68 34.1 0.988 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02
Eastern Europe 621 2 944 79 697 21 8 1.29 0.61 33.5 0.981 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03
Northern Europe 74 1 060 22 905 7 3 1.66 0.80 34.5 0.993 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Southern Europe 122 1 490 36 697 8 3 1.37 0.65 34.5 0.991 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Western Europe 115 1 865 43 923 6 3 1.56 0.75 34.5 0.994 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Latin America and the Caribbean 15 459 11 694 150 995 132 102 2.47 1.15 33.1 0.966 0.39 0.33 0.31 0.32 0.36 0.34 0.35
Caribbean 2  174 735 9 914 296 219 2.42 1.06 31.2 0.940 0.86 0.71 0.64 0.69 0.77 0.68 0.73
Central America 3  812 3 292 40 020 116 95 2.55 1.19 33.4 0.971 0.35 0.30 0.28 0.29 0.33 0.32 0.33
South America 9  474 7 666 101 061 124 94 2.44 1.14 33.2 0.967 0.36 0.30 0.29 0.30 0.33 0.31 0.32
Northern America 464 4 493 82 190 10 6 1.98 0.95 34.3 0.990 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02
Oceania 907 513 7 889 177 115 2.27 1.04 32.7 0.955 0.48 0.40 0.38 0.39 0.40 0.38 0.39

LRMM, lifetime risk of maternal mortality; MMRatio, maternal mortality ratio; MMRate, maternal mortality rate; TFR, total fertility rate; NRR, net reproduction rate; T15–T50, woman-years lived between the ages of 15 and 50 years, as derived from a female life-table; ℓ15/ℓ0, probability that a female will survive from birth to age 15 years.
a The regional and other groupings correspond to those used by the UN Population Division.
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b The aggregate numbers of maternal deaths, live births or women aged 15–49 years reported here may be lower than their true values as the figures shown here exclude some small populations for which no maternal mortality estimates were available.
c Since the purpose here is to illustrate alternative methods of computing the LRMM, values of maternal deaths, MMRatio and MMRate, in this table are not rounded according to standard practice and there is no indication of the uncertainty associated with these estimates. For more information on such topics, please refer to the official report of the 2005 UN estimates.
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d With the assumption that the MMRatio is constant across age, the different formulae for the LRMM are as follows: LR0 = 1.2 × LR1, LR1 = TFR × MMRatio, LR2 = 2.05 × NRR × MMRatio, and LR3 = LR2 ÷ ℓ15/ℓ0.
e With the assumption that the MMRate is constant across age, the different formulae for the LRMM are as follows: LR1 = 35 × MMRate, LR2 = (T15–T50) × MMRate, and LR3 = LR2 ÷ ℓ15/ℓ0.Data on maternal deaths are from the 2005 UN estimates of maternal mortality.
2 Data on live births, women aged 15–49 years, TFR, NRR, T15–T50 and ℓ15/ℓ0 were taken or derived from other UN data.
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