Child mortality

Child mortality is the mortality 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 is "by 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce … under‑5 mortality to at least 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, 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 per cent 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]