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A two stage survey was carried out in order, a) to investigate trends and differentials in infant mortality in Abu Dhabi Emirate from 1980 to 1996 and b) to investigate the influence of risk factors on the problem of mortality under five years. The first stage reviewed infant mortality by sex, ethnicity, locality and cause of death. Data about the births and deaths of children were obtained from the Departments of Preventive Medicine in the three Health Regions of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region; 4523 infant deaths were coded according to the 9^th revision of the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying causes of death were grouped into six main categories, namely: infections; congenital anomalies; conditions originating in the perinatal period; ill-defined conditions; accidents and miscellaneous. The rates for infant, perinatal, neonatal and postneonatal mortalities decreased substantially during the study period. The values for these mortality rates (per 1000 live births or total births in the case of the perinatal mortality rate) or 21.55, 20.43, 13.42 and 8.13 respectively in 1980 contrasted with their values of 9.15, 12.12, 5.51 and 3.64 in 1996. By contrast, the stillbirth rate showed the least change, declining from 8.4 in 1980 to a minimum of 7.79 per 1000 total births in 1996. The ratio of postneonatal to neonatal mortality rates remained broadly constant during the study period. In 1996, the under-5 mortality per 1000 live births was 13.1 in Abu Dhabi Emirate. Accidents formed the leading cause of death in the 1-5 year old children in the whole population from 1980 to 1996. A multiple regression technique was used to evaluate the independent effect of the variables (sex, nationality and region) upon the infant mortality rate. The rate of decline of the infant mortality rate appeared to be changing during the study period, which made the models containing the square of the year more fitting to the data points.