The Ministry of Health and Wellness yesterday released a trove of statistics that give an interesting insight into certain social and societal trends. We'll be sharing them with you over the next few nights, but start with the most popular boy and girl baby names over the past 10 years.
Those deathless classics "Jose"and "Maria" are still in the top 5 - but did you know about the increasingly popular Genesis and Jayden? Jomarie Lanza has the breakdown:
Between 2014 and 2023 - the most popular baby names in Belize were - for girls - Mia, then Maria, Anna, Genesis and Emily, and for boys, it was David, followed by Jayden, then Jose, then Jacob and Aiden.
There were 6370 live births in 2023, the fewest since 1994, and just about 900 of those births were to teenage mothers. 1.4%were twins.
The district that had the highest birth rate in 2023 was Stann Creek at 19.4%,while the Belize District was the lowest at 13.2%.
The Belize district also had the highest death rate, followed closely by Corozal. The Cayo District had the lowest death rate.
2036 Belizeans died in 2023, with heart disease being the leading cause of death, followed by cancer, with unintentional injuries and diabetes thirdhand fourth. In total, four of the top five causes of death were from chronic diseases.
In 2023, Significantly more men died than women - almost 400 more.
Tomorrow we'll look at mental health statistics.
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