Maputo — The gross birth rate in Mozambique is 42.2 per 1,000 inhabitants, according to the definitive results of the 2007 census, released in Maputo n Wednesday.

This is a slight decline on the birth rate found by the 1997 census, which was 44.4 per 1,000 inhabitants.

The fertility rate, however, is virtually unaltered. In 1997, the average Mozambican woman had 5.9 children. Ten years later, that figure has only dropped to 5.8.

The gross death rate is 16 per 1,000 inhabitants, which is a sharp decline on the 1997 figure of 21.1 deaths per, 1,000. Probably the largest single contributor to this is the fall in infant mortality. In 1997 out of every 1,000 live births, 145.7 infants died before they reached their first birthday. By 2007, this figure had fallen to 118.3 - a decline of 19 per cent.

Infant mortality rates also have a strong impact on life expectancy. For anyone born in 2007, life expectancy was 49.4 years. But in 1997, life expectancy at birth was only 42.3 years.

The largest single cause of death remains malaria. It accounted for 28.8 per cent of deaths - but the HIV/AIDS pandemic is not far behind. HIV infection was blamed for 26.9 per cent of deaths.

The census figures also show a sharp drop in illiteracy. In 1997, 60.5 per cent of the population aged 15 and above could not read or write. Ten years later, the figure had fallen to 50.4 per cent. Illiteracy is strongly gender structured - 34.6 per cent of men are illiterate, but among women the figure rises to 64.2 per cent.

A large minority of children of school age remain outside of the school system. The census found that 34.3 per cent of children aged between 6 and 17 are not attending school.

Children are supposed to enter first grade of primary school at the age of six - but many families do not send their children to school until they are seven, eight or more years old. The census found that 63.6 per cent of six year olds and 41.5 per cent of seven year olds were not at school.