Maternal mortality is a widely-used indicator of the political, social, economic and cultural landscape of a country. This project investigates the effects of selected macroeconomic drivers of maternal mortality in the time periods 2000-2001 and 2013-2014. Ordinary least squares regression is used to analyze country-level, cross-sectional data available from the World Bank. The predictive continuous variables are rural population percentage, female secondary education enrollment, fertility rate, the presence of skilled health staff at birth, and the percentage of GDP allocated to public health spending. The predictive dichotomous variable is economic classification. The regression results indicate that in both time periods the variables economic classification, fertility rate, skilled health staff, and female education are statistically significant. It is recommended in order to decrease maternal mortality that international organizations provide funding for programs that specifically target the education of girls, increase the number of midwives, and provide family planning services in low resource settings.
