Zambia

Fertility and Infant Mortality

Zambia has the eighth-highest infant mortality rate (101.2 deaths per 1,000 live births) in the world. Female infants (96.28 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a higher survival rate than male infants (105.97 deaths per 1,000 live births). That advantage narrows over time, and life expectancy for women (38.73 years) is only slightly higher than that of men (38.53). The median age is 17.2 years for women and 16.9 years for men. High mortality rates are highly correlated to Zambia's having the seventh-highest adult prevalence of HIV/AIDS (15.2 percent) in the world and a very high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, schistosomiasis, and rabies. In some areas, Zambians also have a very high risk of contracting malaria and plague.

Zambian women have a fertility rate of 5.15 children each—the 27th-highest rate in the world. Literacy is comparatively high, at 86.8 percent for men and 74.8 percent for women, but both men and women generally attend school for no more than seven years.

The minimum marriage age is 16 years, and early marriages frequently take place immediately after females reach puberty—sometimes without the bride's consent. According to a 2004 United Nations report, almost a fourth of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years are married, divorced, or widowed. In 2003, [Page 1605]approximately 16 percent of married women lived in polygamous marriages, which have become rare among educated, urban women. In the past, a widow was assured of only a fifth of her husband's property, whereas husbands inherited all of a wife's property. A landmark decision in 2006 granted women equal property rights. According to tradition, husbands are the heads of families, and they typically gain custody when a customary marriage is terminated.

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