Country Profile Chad

Chad is located in central Africa and is known for being one of the poorest and most corrupt counties in the entire world. Political violence and repeated coup attempts have been ongoing since five years after Chad gained its independence in 1960. With more than 50 percent of the population illiterate and an inadequate health care system, Chad has many obstacles to its future growth.

The country of Chad has 11.2 million inhabitants; 27 percent of them are located in urban areas. Most of the population lives below the poverty line. Life expectancy in Chad is around five years less than the already low regional average of 52 years.

Medical expenditures in the country are rising slowly but are still at less than half of the regional numbers. There are only 1.4 doctors per ten-thousand people compared to the average 2.3, and only 2.8 nurses and midwives compared to an average of 10.9. The medical system is very small, and most of the population must still rely on traditional methods of health care.

One in every six children in Chad dies before the age of five years. While the surrounding region has seen steady improvement in these numbers, Chad has remained the same for 20 years. Maternal mortality is also high, double the regional average. Approximately 65 percent of infants’ deaths occur because of disease. Rural mortality counts are predictably higher than the urban numbers; although, mortality for the richest 20 percent of the population is actually higher than that of the poor. This may be because of the increased ability of the rich to have more children or, more likely, that infant deaths for poor, rural-dwellers are not being reported.

Chad has more problems in the form of a 40 percent stunted growth rate due to malnutrition. Antenatal care is also low, only 17 percent compared to the average of 44 percent for the area.

The number of births attended by skilled physicians is less than half of the regional average, 21 percent versus 48 percent. Almost all of these births are to the wealthy and those that live in urban areas.

HIV is a large problem in Chad. It affects more than three percent of the adult population; however, that is lower than the numbers in surrounding countries. Other diseases are also serious problems, even more so than in the surrounding regions. Immunizations are done to less than one-third of children, and most of these are limited to city-dwellers and the wealthiest of the population.

Though the availability of clean drinking water has risen slightly, it is still at less than 70 percent in urban areas and just over 40 percent in rural zones. Sanitation is horrible as it is available for only 20 percent in urban areas and less than five percent in rural areas.

Chad is still a very non-industrialized country. Infrastructure has been repeatedly destroyed by civil wars and continued armed conflicts. It is essentially a country where the rural population has been left to tend to itself in their traditional ways. Most services are available exclusively for the wealthier, urban population.