Child mortality

Share of children born alive that die before the age of 5 (2017)[1]
Breakdown of child mortality by cause, OWID

Child mortality is the death of children under the age of five.[2] The child mortality rate (also under-five mortality rate) refers to the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births.[3]

It encompasses neonatal mortality and infant mortality (the probability of death in the first year of life).[3]

Reduction of child mortality is reflected in several of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Target 3.2 states that "by 2030, the goal is to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age with all countries aiming to reduce under‑5 mortality to as low as 25 per 1,000 live births."[4]

Child mortality rates have decreased in the last 40 years. Rapid progress has resulted in a significant decline in preventable child deaths since 1990 with the global under-5 mortality rate declining by over half between 1990 and 2016.[3] While in 1990, 12.6 million children under age five died and in 2016, that number fell to 5.6 million children and then in 2020, the global number fell again to 5 million.[3] However, despite advances, there are still 15,000 under-five deaths per day from largely preventable causes.[3] About 80 percent of these occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and just 6 countries account for half of all under-five deaths: China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[3] 45% of these children died during the first 28 days of life.[5] Death rates were highest among children under age 1, followed by children ages 15 to 19, 1 to 4 and 5 to 14.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ "Child mortality". Our World in Data. Archived from the original on 2022-09-14.
  2. ^ "WHO Child mortality and causes of death". World Health Organization. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Under-five mortality". UNICEF. December 2021. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  4. ^ "Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages". United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  5. ^ Liu L, Oza S, Hogan D, Chu Y, Perin J, Zhu J, et al. (December 2016). "Global, regional, and national causes of under-5 mortality in 2000–15: an updated systematic analysis with implications for the Sustainable Development Goals". The Lancet. 388 (10063): 3027–3035. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31593-8. PMC 5161777. PMID 27839855.
  6. ^ "Infant, Child, and Teen Mortality". Child Trends. Archived from the original on 30 November 2016.
  7. ^ "A Snapshot of Civil Registration in Sub-Saharan Africa" (PDF). UNICEF. 2017-12-05. Archived from the original on 21 March 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  8. ^ "A Child is a Child: Protecting children on the move from violence, abuse and exploitation" (PDF). UNICEF. 2017-05-18. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2018.