Gapminder Screencast and Analysis Pt. 2

As income per person rises, the maternal mortality ratio falls.

1a. Income per person: annual income per person. Take total GDP/population. Measured in USD.

      Maternal mortality ratio: Annual number of maternal deaths compared to live births, multiplied by                   100,000. Measured in mortality:living ratio times 100,000.

1b. Income per person is one of the main indicators of economic development, because if the average citizen of a state, and the state itslef has more money, then the standard of living will go up, reflected in many developmental indicators such as maternal mortality, which reflects the health of a country. With higher economic development, the government and people of the country can afford to spend more on health care professionals, equipment, and facilities. Health is one of the main indicators in the UN Human Development Index. More developed economy = better health care = lower maternal mortality = better health score = higher HDI.

2a. There isn't data for many countries early in time, but in the past two decades, most of the world's countries rise in income per person and fall in maternal mortality. Also, starting in the 1950s, there was large decrease in maternal mortality. Regionally, the countries with the least maternal mortality and the most income per person are in Europe and Central Asia. On the other end of the spectrum, countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have low incomes and high maternal mortality rates. However, all of the data for these variables is very spread out, and there are many outliers, so these observations are wide generalizations. The countries not in these regions are spread out in the middle. 

2b. Globally, income per person is increasing over time because of many reasons, for example: with more efficient ways of producing goods companies can afford to pay workers more, development of labor unions and minimum wage laws, more labor forces in countries are moving into the service sector (which pays more), etc. Maternal mortality has been globally decreasing because of new technological advances in health care, and also the general economic development in the world has been making health care more accessible. Regionally, Europe and Central Asia have the highest incomes and lowest maternal mortality because they developed first, which allowed them to colonize other countries that weren't developed, and take advantage of them, which helped them to develop faster. This lead to more capital, and thus better health care. The countries with low incomes are less economically developed because they were previous colonies of Europe. Many Sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries were colonized by Europeans. This led to them being dependent on European powers (dependency theory). When they wanted to become independent, they had to find new leadership (which caused civil wars) and after that in order to give the country a start they had to take out structural adjustment loans. It's extremely hard to pay them off with interest, so poverty hits those countries, they don't develop as fast, the're stuck with primary economic activities which don't pay much. This low economic development makes it hard to have good health care services, and it's hard for people to get the education to become health care professionals, so more people are giving birth without a maternal doctor or a proper facility, which gives a higher risk of mortality. The other countries are spread out in the middle because they are not extremely developed or underdeveloped, and their health care systems vary, so it's hard to make generalizations about them.