State Committee on Statistics wants to prove wrong UNICEF estimations

These researches will cover all regions of the country and require a large amount of funds, the chairman of the State Statistics Committee (SSC) Arif Veliyev told Trend. The visit to Baku of the NGO experts, with whom estimations for identification of the research budget will be made, is scheduled shortly.

Researches cover reports on the birth rate, the death rate, the children development (education, health, living conditions).

Similar researches were carried out in Azerbaijan by UNICEF in 2003. According to them, the death rate was indicated 4 times higher than the SSC official data, at the result of which Azerbaijan, by its human development level lowered from the 85-th place to 101, being behind Georgia and Armenia. As the average life span is defined by the death rate, which according to SSC is 72,5 years, by UNICEF calculations is 66 years. The main goal in conducting new researches is to prove incorrectness of the UNICEF calculations, which, according to Veliyev, held monitoring without the SSC experts. "We voiced our disagreement with the final results and notified both UNICEF and the Azerbaijan Cabinet of Ministers. In this regard they were forced to indicate the SSC death rate data in the brochure issued," Veliyev noted. By the UNICEF data, 80 deaths were recorded per 1,000 people, taking into account the data till one year old age, and by statistical indices -20.

"It is wrong, that by the death rate level Azerbaijan reached the level of Nigeria," the SSC head noted. The death rate per 1,000 persons in 2005 grew from 6,1 per 1,000 people to 6,3, and the birth rate – from 16,1 to 17,1.

The American NGO will carry out researches by the invitation of the Azerbaijani side.