Lithuania

Lithuania was involuntarily annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940 and was among the first Soviet republics to declare its independence in 1990. The population suffered a severe decline in health status after independence, as did many former Soviet republics, but eventually rebuilt itself as a modern market economy with a high standard of living, and joined both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union in 2004. Lithuania's economy has grown by 8 percent on average each of the last four years, and the per capita income in 2008 was estimate at $17,700, up from $15,700 in 2006.

The 2009 population of Lithuania is estimated at 3.6 million, with a median age of 39.3 years and the typical age structure of a developed country: 69.6 percent of the population is aged 15–64 years, with 14.2 percent age 14 or younger and 16.2 percent age 65 or older. Most of the population is Lithuanian (83.4 percent) and Roman Catholic (79 percent). The population growth rate is negative (−0.28 percent), with 9 births per 1,000 population, 11.1 deaths per 1,000, and a slight out-migration of 0.72 migrants per 1,000 population. The total fertility rate (an estimate of the number of children born to each woman) is 1.2, typical of developed countries.

Women have a substantially higher life expectancy than men, of 80.1 years versus 70 years, which is reflected in the overall male/female ratio of 0.89 males per female, and in the over-65 age group of 0.53 males per female. Literacy is almost universal and equal among men and women at 99.6 percent. Substantial government revenues are devoted to health care: in 2002 the per capita expenditure on health was $241, with $175 of that being governmental expenditures.

The standard of maternal and infant care is high, with immunization rates over 90 percent for major diseases and routine vaccinations entirely financed by government funds. Thirty-one percent of women use modern contraceptive methods, and mortality rates related to childhood are low: the maternal mortality ratio in 2000 was 19 per 100,000 live births, the stillbirth rate 6 per 1,000 total births, and the neonatal mortality rate 5 per 1,000 live births.

Save the Children, an international organization devoted to improving maternal and child health, places Lithuania in its Tier I or more developed countries group (which includes western European countries, the United States, and Canada): Lithuania ranked 14th on the Women's Index (which takes into account factors such as life expectancy, maternal mortality, availability of modern contraception, and maternity leave benefits) and 20th on the Mothers' Index (which takes into account additional factors related to children's health and well-being, such as the under-5 mortality rate and gender parity in primary school enrollment).