Tag Archives: mortality

How much have child and adolescent mortality rates changed?

The World Bank report, New child and adolescent mortality estimates show remarkable progress, but 17,000 children under 15 still died every day in 2017, by Emi Suzuki and co-author Haruna Kashiwase ( 9/18/18) provides a summary, as well as a number of charts. The good news:

There has been remarkable progress in reducing mortality among children and young adolescents in the past several decades. Between 1990 and 2017, the global under-five mortality rate dropped by 58 percent from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births. During the last 17 years, the reduction in under-five mortality rates accelerated to an average 4% annual reduction, compared to an average 1.9% annual reduction between 1990 and 2000. For children aged 5-14, mortality dropped by 53 percent, from 15 deaths to 7 deaths per 1,000 children.

At the same time there is work to be done:

However, while a substantial reduction from the 14.3 million in 1990, an estimated 6.3 million children under age 15 still died in 2017, mostly from preventable causes.

The charts on the page are interactive but can’t be downloaded. On the other hand, the data is easily available and charts can be made for download. The chart here was made at the World Bank’s DataBank.  Note that the European Union has a lower under 5 mortality rate than the U.S. There are numerous variables to choose. Data can be downloaded and charts for download can be highly customized.