In preparing for this assignment, a list of all countries of the world by land area was obtained from the CIA website and was sorted in a spreadsheet from countries with the largest land area to countries with the smallest land area. A total of 224 countries were obtained, and after elimination of all countries with a land area smaller than Belgium, a total of 137 countries remained.
Data on global infant mortality rates was obtained for each country in the reduced list and was recorded as deaths/1000 live births . To obtain a dissection of these figures in to the categories of high, medium and low mortality rates, the total number of deaths was calculated and this figure was divided by 137 to obtain the mean point (C.) of the list. When this was done, a total of mortality rates for all countries above the mean was calculated to obtain the mean (B.) of high numbers of deaths. The same calculation was applied to all countries to obtain the mean (D.) of low numbers of deaths. Deaths in the range from the highest death rate (A.) to the mean B. was allocated to the “High” category, those deaths between means B. and D. were allocated to the “Medium” category and those deaths from the mean D. to the end of the list were allocated to the “Low” category. These numbers were then transformed to the World Map, where the “High” category countries were colored in red, the “Medium” category countries were coloured in green and the “Low” category countries were coloured in light blue.
Much the same technique was used to calculate each country’s population density, however when looking at the numbers, it was much easier to assign them to various categories, i.e. less than 5 million to 214.9 million, 25 million to 49.9 million and greater than 50 million. In dealing with the issue of ethnic diversity, the writer was guided by the work of the Harvard Institute for Economic Research and a map prepared by Max Fisher of the Washington Post, based on the working paper produced by HIER. When all this data was collated, it was manually plotted on the World Map, country by country, using an online map to reference in order to ensure that the data was placed in the correct country.
What is immediately obvious is that the highest rates of infant mortality occur in countries suffering internal conflict or poverty. Numerous African countries suffer from high rates of infant mortality, together with Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Laos. The following observations have been mooted as to why the infant mortality rates are so high in these countries. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of HIV and AIDS in the world and is believed to be the epicentre of the global epidemic of HIV. High rates of malaria may also contribute to infant mortality rates. Afghanistan and its neighbour, Pakistan, are currently experiencing conflict which could contribute to infant mortality rates. No specific reason can be given for the high mortality rate in Laos other than it may just be the result of a statistical anomaly due to the writer’s method of determining the “High”, “Medium” and “Low” categories. Also scattered throughout Africa are pocket of mortality rates which are completely different from those of their neighbours. Botswana is a landlocked country and is surrounded by countries whose infant mortality rates are either high or medium, and yet Botswana’s rate is very low. Also, tiny countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast Have much lower infant mortality rates than the neighbouring countries which surround them.
What is interesting about map is the apparent lack of ethnic diversity in countries such as the USA, the United Kingdom and Australia, all countries which have welcomed migrants and refugees for many years. The USA and Australia also have their aboriginal peoples to contribute to ethnic diversity. Is ethnicity then something that can be measured or is it a subjective concept?
African countries are the most diverse and Fisher argues this may be a hangover from their former European colonial legacy, where those in charge often used ethnic differences to help them to acquire their power. Another interesting outcome from the perspective of ethnic diversity is that Canada appears to be very diverse. Again, Fisher points out that this may be because Quebecois were counted as an ethnically distinct group, or it may be a matter of different perceptions and concepts of what constitutes ethnicity. Also notable is that most strong governments correlate with a lack of ethnic diversity.
The country map chosen for the assignment was a map of Australia. It can be seen on the World Map that Australia has a low infant mortality, a homogenous ethnicity and a low population density. However what is not obvious from the World Map is that Australia’s population is not evenly distributed throughout the country. In fact, since the interior of Australia is hot and dry, and contains large deserts, very few people inhabit this region. Most of the population is located on the east and south-east coastal strips, with an isolated population in the south west corner of the country and a few other smaller populations scatter about the remainder of the coastline.
The population density map of Australia also shows that most of the population are centred in the capital cities or major tourism and industrial ports throughout the country. This is not at all obvious from the World Map, because it does not take into account Australia’s large amount of uninhabitable land when offsetting population numbers against land area. It is only when more detailed statistics are available, that the population picture becomes clear.
What is very clear however, from the performance of this exercise is that broad scale statistical data may not always give an exact picture of the real state of affairs. It is much more useful to work at a country, rather than a global level when attempting to measure the reality of aspects of a country’s composition.
Works Cited
Alesina, Alberto F. and Easterly, William and Devleeschauwer, Arnaud and Kurlat, Sergio and Wacziarg, Romain T. “Fractionalization.” Harvard Institute Research Working Paper No. 1959 (2002). <http://ssrn.com/abstract=319762 or http:/ http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.319762 >.
CIA. World Fact Book 2016-17. 2016. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html>.
—. World Fact Book 2016-17: Infant Mortality Rate. 2016. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html>.
Fisher, Max. “A revealing map of the world’s most and least ethnically diverse countries.” The Washington Post 16 May 2013. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/16/a-revealing-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-ethnically-diverse-countries/>.
Maps of the World. “Large World Map.” 2013. Map. <http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-map-image.html>.
UNAIDS. “The Gap Report.” 2014. <http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/UNAIDS_Gap_report_en.pdf>.
