This paper investigates the effects of living standards and relative poverty on infant and child mortality in the urban areas of Egypt, with a special fo- cus on Greater Cairo. To measure living standards, we apply a multiple-indicator, multiple-cause (MIMIC) factor-analytic model to a set of proxy variables collected in the 2003 Interim Demographic and Health Survey for Egypt, and extract an estimate of the relative standard of living for each household. Using this estimate, we find that living standards exert substan- tial influence on early childhood chances of survival. Moreover, there is evidence that household living standards make a difference to child survival, much more than that of neighborhood.