ATLAS · FUSION VIEW
Longevity & Infant Survival
Life expectancy as colour, infant mortality as bubbles. Two of the most-watched numbers in global health on one map — and the brutal clarity of how much of a nation’s lifespan is decided in its first twelve months.
COLOUR
Life Expectancy
Years a newborn would live under current mortality, World Bank.
World Bank Open Data · 2024
BUBBLE SIZE
Infant Mortality
Deaths before age one per 1,000 live births, World Bank. Lower is better.
World Bank Open Data · 2024
How strongly do they move together?
Across the 196 countries with both figures, life expectancy and infant mortality move in opposite directions a very strong amount — as one rises, the other tends to fall (correlation r = -0.89). That’s a clear, dependable pattern; the map below makes it visible at a glance.
Correlation is measured across the 196countries that have both figures, in each metric’s own scale. Correlation is not causation — it only measures whether the two tend to track each other.
The deepest-green countries live longest; the biggest bubbles bury the most infants. They are near-perfect opposites — where babies die, average lifespans collapse, because so many lives are cut off at the very start. As child survival improves, life expectancy climbs almost in lockstep. A long average life is, to a first approximation, a country that has learned to keep its newborns alive.
Who fits the pattern — and who breaks it
Two ways to read the map. On the left, the countries that most clearly follow the relationship; on the right, the ones that most defy it — the exceptions worth a closer look.
| Country | Life expectancy | Infant mortality |
|---|---|---|
| Sierra Leone | 62.0 yrs | 54.6 / 1,000 |
| Mozambique | 63.8 yrs | 43.7 / 1,000 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 64.3 yrs | 42.1 / 1,000 |
| Eritrea | 68.9 yrs | 24.7 / 1,000 |
| Portugal | 82.4 yrs | 2.7 / 1,000 |
| Nigeria | 54.6 yrs | 69.8 / 1,000 |
Understand the underlying numbers
See each layer on its own
TWO LAYERS, ONE MAP
Try another pairing, or build your own in the live Atlas.