http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/databytopic.html See Table 2.18
(was able to find it through the links on the LBO website)
>From my simple calculations of the latest WB data until 1997.
Since 1980, life expectancy has improved by 6%. There has been a 21% reduction in infant mortality, a 37% reduction in under five mortality, and a 15% decrease in adult mortality for both women and men. There are no aggregate statistics for the reduction in child mortality which seems to have moved downward the least of all. This is very troubling since it can be argued that nothing better guages the functioning of the health monitoring system than children's health. Much of the reduction in infant mortality and under five mortality rates could be the result of the poor having fewer children as they are urbanized, while the reduction in adult mortality could be enjoyed disproportionately by the better off classes. The lives of the adult poor may well remain brutish and short.
Yours, Rakesh