2020 census-based comparative estimations of infant and child mortality in Tajikistan

Abstract

The article aims at estimating and analyzing with an indirect method the infant mortality and under-five years child mortality in urban and rural areas of one of the poorest countries in the post-Soviet space of Central Asia — the Republic of Tajikistan. Demographic data collected by the 2020 Population and Housing Census was used to estimate the child mortality by focusing on the data on children ever born and children still alive, and the number of married women at that time. By today, the estimated infant and child mortality in 2005–2019 has significantly declined. At the same time, in recent years, both infant and child mortality in urban areas has become much higher than in rural districts. Despite the gradually declining general child mortality rate in Tajikistan, the state authorities at all levels have to continue implementing different target national and local measures in urban and rural areas in order to significantly improve and even develop medical health care and service systems, providing access to them for the wider population, adopt new housing and other social policies to ensure for women, children and families in general better social, economic and medical environment and support.