PLoS Medicine Issue Image | Vol. 4(1) January 2007

Abstract

The top map of the pair shows the global distribution of physicians, with territory drawn in proportion to the number who work there. There were 7.7 million physicians worldwide in 2004 (source: World Health Organization, World Health Report 2006; http://www.worldmapper.org map 219). The bottom map shows each territory of the world with its area scaled in proportion to the number of infants who died in their first week of life there in the year 2000 (3 million worldwide; source: World Health Organization, World Health Report 2005, annex, table 8; http://www.worldmapper.org map 260). This is a global image of the inverse care law found also within most territories as well as between them. Much else influences where physicians are trained and choose to work and where infants are most likely to die in their first seven days. For instance, the number of working midwives is shown in worldmapper map 215 and the number of births attended in map 4; the incidence of diarrhoea in map 233; and the extent of two measures of world poverty and wealth in worldmapper maps 174 and 169 respectively. Image Credit: Images taken from Dorling et al.