Super fact 137 : Child mortality has sharply declined in all world regions. Despite that fact, five million children die every year. Most of these deaths are preventable.
The graph above shows the probability a newborn would die before reaching the age of five if the year’s age-specific mortality rates stayed unchanged. It is not the share of an actual cohort that has been observed dying. As you can see, the child mortality worldwide has gone from 22.7% in 1950 to 3.6% in 2023. That is more than a sixfold improvement. The significant uptick in child mortality in 1960 is because of the Great Leap Forward in China.
The graph below shows that the sharp decline in child mortality exists across all regions of the world. The graph depicts the child mortality rate for Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America, Europe and the whole world. You can play around with the graph and select your own regions and countries by clicking here. Note that Africa is the region with the worst numbers. However, the decline in child mortality still goes from 32.7% in 1950 to 6.3% in 2023, a fivefold decline.
If you look further back in time the numbers are not as accurate, but they are a lot more impressive. In the maps below you can see that the child mortality rate in the 1800 is estimated to be between 30% and 60% everywhere in the world. If you look at the bottom map, you’ll see that the countries that are the worst off with respect to the child mortality rate in 2015 have a child mortality rate of 14%. That means that the worst off country in the 21st century is much better off than any of the countries were in the 1800. You can read more about this map and related information here.
However, a child mortality rate of 3.6% still means that nearly five million children die every year before the age of five. The UN estimates that 990 million children have died globally since 1950. Most of these deaths are preventable. Infectious diseases and birth disorders (primarily preterm births and neonatal suffocation) dominate deaths among children under five. The impressive and almost steady decline in the child mortality rate across all regions in the world is a positive but surprising and important fact. However, the fact that despite the success in reducing the child mortality rate five million children still die, and those deaths are preventable is a surprising but less positive fact. That’s why I consider this a super fact.
Look at the bottom half on the following page for details about the original sources.
Additional Child Mortality Rate Graphs and Maps
In the graph below notice that Japan shows a decline in the child mortality rate from 9% in 1950 to 0.2% in 2023, which is quite impressive.
The Death of Five Million Children
Five million children die every year — what do they die from?
44% died from infectious diseases including pneumonia, influenza, covid-19, malaria, rotavirus, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, encephalitis, measles, whooping cough, and meningitis, STDs, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. It may come as a surprise that 118,000 children died from measles in 2023 and 95,600 children died from whopping cough in 2023.
42% died from birth disorders including preterm birth, neonatal asphyxia, heart abnormalities, neonatal sepsis, etc. The remaining 14% were cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases, genetic blood disorders, malnutrition, cancers, accidents such as drowning and transport accidents. You read the details and check the graphics here.
Related Super Facts
- Poverty and child mortality has been sharply reduced worldwide
- We are living in relatively peaceful times
- Smallpox Killed 300 million People in the Last Century Before Eradication
- Natural Disasters Kill Less People Now Than 100 Years Ago
- Emissions of ozone-depleting gases have fallen by 99 Percent
- Vaccines do not cause Autism
