Bridging the Divide: Analyzing Child and Infant Mortality Disparities in Congo’s Urban and Rural Areas

This article presents an analysis of the differences in mortality among children under 5 years old according to their place of residence (rural or urban) in Congo and examines the hypothesis that these differences are merely manifestations of underlying economic status differences. Based on data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-5, 2014-2015), our findings refute the previously established hypothesis between child and juvenile mortality and wealth level. On the contrary, the significant contribution of malnutrition (10.07%) suggests that investments in community infrastructure could potentially play an important role in reducing child and juvenile mortality differences. Furthermore, if the two child groups were identical in terms of their characteristics, the child mortality gap would still be 0.047733, or 4.77% in favor of the urban environment. The corollary of these results suggests that in addition to strengthening maternal, infant, and juvenile health programs in rural areas, substantial efforts must also be made to improve household income.