Overview

The latest estimates on child mortality generated by the UN Inter-agency Group on Child Mortality Estimation were released on September 14: Levels and Trends in Child Mortality, Report 2011.

PROGRESS TOWARDS MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL 4:
KEY FACTS AND FIGURES

• Overall, substantial progress has been made towards achieving MDG 4. The number of under-five deaths worldwide has declined from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010. Nearly 21,000 children under five died every day in 2010—about 12,000 fewer a day than in 1990.

• Since 1990 the global under-five mortality rate has dropped 35 percent—from 88 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 57 in 2010. Latin America and Caribbean, East Asia and Pacific, and Central and Eastern Europe / Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) have reduced their under-five mortality rate by 50 percent or more.

• The rate of decline in under-five mortality has accelerated—from 1.9 percent a year over 1990–2000 to 2.5 percent a year over 2000–2010—but remains insufficient to reach MDG 4, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

• The highest rates of child mortality are still in Sub-Saharan Africa—where 1 in 8 children dies before age 5, more than 20 times the average for industrialized countries (1 in 167)—and South Asia (1in 15). As under-five mortality rates have fallen more sharply elsewhere, the disparity between these two regions and the rest of the world has grown.

• Under-five deaths are increasingly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, while the share of the rest of the world dropped from 33 percent in 1990 to 20 percent in 2010.

• In Sub-Saharan Africa the annual average rate of reduction in under-five mortality has accelerated, doubling from 1990–2000 to 2000–2010. Six of the fourteen best-performing countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, as are four of the five countries with the largest absolute reductions (more than 100 deaths per 1,000 live births).

• About half of under-five deaths occur in only five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and China. India (22 percent) and Nigeria (11 percent) together account for a third of all under-five deaths.

• Over 70 percent of under-five deaths occur within the first year of life.

• The proportion of under-five deaths that occur within the first month of life (the neonatal period) has increased about 10 percent since 1990 to more than 40 percent of all under-five deaths.

• Almost 30 percent of neonatal deaths occur in India. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest risk of death in the first month of life and has shown the least progress.

• Globally, the four major killers of children under age 5are pneumonia (18 percent), diarrhoeal diseases (15 percent), preterm birth complications (12 percent) and birth asphyxia (9 percent). Undernutritionis an underlying cause in more than a third of under-five deaths. Malaria is still a major killer in Sub-Saharan Africa, causing about 16 percent of under-five deaths.

Regional classifications used here are UNICEF regions.

Click  to read more about under-five mortality and neonatal mortality.