politicians and economists look at the latest gross domestic product ( gdp) figures to see how their nations are doing. I look at the infant mortality rate or imr . It is the number of babies out of every 1,000 born who die before they reach their first birthday. For instance, in 1998, Finland had the world's lowest imr of 3.5, that is 996.5 out of 1000 infants born reached the age of one. The highest infant mortality rate