MORTALITY AS AN INDICATOR OF ECONOMIC SUCCESS AND FAILURE

Quality of life depends on various physical and social conditions, suc h as the epidemiological environment in which a person lives. The avai lability of health care and the nature of medical insurance-public as well as private-are among the important influences on life and death. So are other social services, including basic education and the orderl iness of urban living, and the access to modern medical knowledge in r ural communities. The statistics on mortality draw our attention to al l these policy issues. Mortality information can throw light also on t he nature of social inequalities, including gender bias and racial dis parities.