On 1 October 2014, whilst attending a plenary session at the Parliament, representative of the Parliamentary Minority, Zviad Dzidziguri, stated: “The mortality rate was constantly increasing until 2012. In 2013, this rate, including the child mortality rate, decreased and in 2014, for the first time in the last 25 years, a decrease is expected according to all of the data. There have been no such moments in our country since 1989.”

FactCheck

took interest in Zviad Dzidziguri’s statement and analysed statistical data on the mortality rate in Georgia.

According to the data

provided by the National Statistics Office of Georgia, 48,553 people died in 2013. The mortality rate per 1,000 people was 10.8% (108 deaths) which is 0.2% less than the index of the last year.

As can be seen from the above graph, the highest mortality rate in the period of 2001-2013 was recorded in 2004 with 113 deaths per 1,000 people. The mortality rate started to decrease from 2005 although increasing again in 2008. The rate dropped slightly in 2012 and 2013.

Zviad Dzidziguri drew attention to the child mortality rate as well. The Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME) is carrying out research on this topic. We analysed the child mortality rate based exactly upon their data (

see Graph 2). In 2013, the child mortality rate decreased by 0.9 points as compared to the previous year. Considering 2001-2013 statistics, this rate is quite high, although the fact is that it is decreasing year by year.

Conclusion

According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the mortality rate per 1,000 people decreased by 0.2% in 2013 although the mortality rate was not constantly ascending, as Zviad Dzidziguri says. Based upon 2001-2013 statistical data, there were trends of both increase and decrease. As for the child mortality rate, this rate decreased in 2013 as well, although, the statistical data for 2001-2013 show that it has been on the decrease year by year.

FactCheck concludes that Zviad Dzidziguri’s statement:  “The mortality rate was constantly increasing until 2012. In 2013, this rate, including the child mortality rate, decreased,” is MOSTLY FALSE.