INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH GEOGRAPHICS

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Improved understanding of geographic variation and in-equity in health status, wealth, and access to resources within countries is increasingly being recognized as central to meeting development goals. Approaches based on local epidemiological and coverage data have been identified as vital to reducing childhood mortality for Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 [1], while the sub-national heterogeneity in HIV [2,3] and malaria [4,5] prevalences mean that effective targeting of interventions remains vital in achieving MDG 6 [6]. Indicators assessed at national level can often conceal important inequities, with the rural poor often least well represented [7,8]. The fifth MDG, which targets maternal health, is widely recognised as being the most off-track of the goals en-dorsed by leaders in 2000 [9]. Moreover, with a little mor