Atheer – Oman News Agency
According to a data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the number of children in the Sultanate below the age of 17, as of mid-2016, is 1,006,651. This figure represents 41.5% of the total population and is being viewed as a positive indicator of the country’s achievements in childcare.
The statistics revealed that the birth rate rose by 21.8% between 2012 and 2016 to 33.7 live births per thousand, while the total fertility rate of women was 4% in the age group 15 to 49 years.
In 2016, the infant mortality rate was 11.7 children per 1,000 live births while the under-five mortality rate was 9.2 children per 1,000 live births.
The proportion of children born below the normal birth weight decreased slightly in recent years. In 2016 it had fallen to 9.4% from 9.5% in 2012, whereas the ratio of children under five years of age who suffer from calorie-related malnutrition fell to 1.8% in 2016 from 4.6% in 2012.
A total 92 cases of overweight and obese children under the age of five were recorded in 2016. Of them 67.4% were male and 32.6% were female. About 47% of obese children under five years of age were recorded in the Governorate of North Al Batinah.
A total of 8,381 children with disabilities were recorded in the 2016. The number of rehabilitation centres for disabled children now stands at 26, with 1,994 children enrolled at such centres as of the end of 2016. In addition, there are eleven Association for the Welfare of Handicapped Children centres, in which 360 children were enrolled as of the end of 2016.
Furthermore, the number of juvenile offenders in the 9-17 age group was 765, which is 3.7% of the total number of offenders in 2016. This figure was 12.7% lower than the 2015 figure. From among these juvenile delinquents, 95% were male were found to have been involved in money related crimes.
