Both countries have similar rates of development in quality of life index

The UAE is ranked with the US in several parameters of quality of life index including the low child mortality rates, literacy and life expectancy.

Along with Qatar, the UAE recorded the lowest mortality of children in that age group among 21 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Arabic language daily Al Bayan reported quoting the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The latest statistics released by WHO showed that the rate of mortality of children below five is almost 8 deaths for every thousand births – the same as in the US. The statistics recorded by both the UAE and Qatar match that of developed countries.

The mortality rate was found to be very high in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, where between 70 and 250 deaths were recorded for every 1,000 births.

However, the UAE was third after Kuwait in maternal mortality. While Kuwait saw only 4 deaths for every 100,000 births, the figure was 37 in the UAE and 12 in Qatar.

The UAE population grows at the rate of 4.4 per cent every year – which is 1 per cent in the US – while the 78 per cent of the country’s people lived in urban areas – 82 per cent in the US.

While adult literacy in the UAE and US were on par at 90 per cent, net enrollment rate in primary schools were 92 per cent for males and 91 per cent for females. Fertility rate of women in the two countries stood at 1.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively.

Life expectancy in both countries remained 78 years.