This study examined the regional differences in the role of wealth and mothers' educational attainment in explaining infant and child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Specifically, this study investigates the role of wealth and mothers' educational attainment in urban-rural and regional differences of SSA. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and the World Bank African Development Indicators to document these regional differences in infant and child mortality rates in SSA. Our findings show small variability in the risk of infant and child mortality attributable to regional differences in SSA. There is a statistically negative significant difference in infant and child mortality with urban dwellers compared to rural dwellers in SSA. Also, we found the risk of infant and child mortality to be correlated with per capita gross domestic product equal to or greater than five hundred US dollars ($500). Our findings show mother's education to be negatively correlated with infant and child mortality in SSA. These findings give credence to previous studies which highlighted the significance of wealth, education of the mother, and location in explaining infant and child mortality differences in SSA. Our study finds no evidence of a statistically significant difference in the risk of infant and child mortality between the urban poorest and poorer wealth quintile households and their rural counterparts in SSA.

We analyze infant and under-5 mortality trends in Nigeria using data from the demographic and health surveys (DHS) of 2003 and 2008. We use pooled data to enable us carry out logistic regression analysis at the state level and allow for robustness of our results. Our analysis shows wide disparities in both infant and under-5 mortality rates in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Furthermore, the results show highly significant differences in infant and under-5 mortality rates among the six geopolitical zones and among the 36 states of Nigeria. Our result shows that urban advantage over rural areas in under-5 mortality rate only exist among the richest quintiles in Nigeria. We find no evidence of statistically significant difference between the urban poorest and poorer quintiles and the rural poorest and poorer quintiles in both infant and under-5 mortality in Nigeria. We find wealth, educational attainment of the mother, the use of health facility, religion, gender of a child, and number of births in the last 3 years to be highly correlated with infant and under-5 mortality in Nigeria. Both infant and under-5 mortality rates declined between 2003 and 2008 in Nigeria.

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