Health Status
A.
Vital Events
1.
Data Problems
As is the case with most developing countries, adequately measuring in
a quantifiable manner the health status of the population is very difficult.
It is even more difficult here in that the entire country has only 30,000 +
people thus the total number of vital events occurring in one year are few.
Therefore any errors in reporting, data handling, or interpretation cause
considerably more
populations.
change
in
the
rates
and
percentages
than
in
larger
For example, the missing of one or two atolls by a "field
ship" doing immunizations (or collecting statistics) can mean that an entire
cohort of children can be missed thus dramatically affecting immunization
levels, not to mention birth and death statistics.
In the economic sector small changes can. cause even greater population
data changes.
It has been said for instance, that the “laying off" of one
Marshallese employee on
the Kwajalein Missile Range causes twenty plus
individuals to leave Ebeye (the adjacent Marshallese town) for their outer
island
home
atolls.
Rapid
changes
in migration,
age/sex composition,
geographical distribution, and total population per atoll occur frequently
as a result of minor governmental changes in hiring practices and policies
(55-65% of the workforce in Ebeye or Majuro are employed by the government,
furthermore it is estimated that 50-60% of the available workforce in these
centers are not employed).
Consequently, any quantitative presentation of the situation must be
viewed with caution.
Nevertheless the data that is available does provide
an estimate of the current status.
Most of the data comes from either the
1973 census (the 1980 official census data will not be available until mid1981) or an unofficial census in 1977, done by the Department of Planning
and
Resource
monitors
vital
Development.
events
The
(births,
continuing
death,
fetal
registration
deaths)
system
which
and health service
utilization statistics also provide data.
2.
Demography/Vital Events
The total population in 1977 was estimated at 25,457 Table 1 shows the
projected population by age categories for 1979, 1981, 1985, 1990, and the
year 2000.