Mortality in Moroccan children: Study of geographic distribution

Over the period 1986-1992 the U5MR in urban and rural areas decreased from 97 to 25.42 and from 165 to 35.07‰, respectively. Since 1987, each of the 7 regions has reduced its U5MR by 32.35 %, with the lowest rate of 20.26% for the Eastern region and the highest rate 55.34 % in the South-central region. The disparities in under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) between rural, urban and regions in Moroccan population are persistent. Morocco was at the nearest to meet the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG) in urban (25.45 ‰) area, but must make a steady progress towards the attainment of it in rural (35.07 ‰). The rate reduction in U5MR at regional level is at least of 5.3 % putting them well on track to meet MDG 4.