Child and infant mortality

Abstract

• 15,000 children die every day – Child mortality is an everyday tragedy of enormous scale that rarely makes the headlines • Child mortality rates have declined in all world regions, but the world is not on track to reach the Sustainable Development Goal for child mortality • Before the Modern Revolution child mortality was very high in all societies that we have knowledge of – a quarter of all children died in the first year of life, almost half died before reaching the end of puberty • Over the last two centuries all countries in the world have made very rapid progress against child mortality. From 1800 to 1950 global mortality has halved from around 43% to 22.5%. Since 1950 the mortality rate has declined five-fold to 4.5% in 2015. All countries in the world have benefitted from this progress • In the past it was very common for parents to see children die, because both, child mortality rates and fertility rates were very high. In Europe in the mid 18th century parents lost on average between 3 and 4 of their children Based on this overview we are asking where the world is today – where are children dying and what are they dying from? • 5.4 million children died in 2017 – Where did these children die? • Pneumonia is the most common cause of death, preterm births and neonatal disorders is second, and diarrheal diseases are third – What are children today dying from? This is the basis for answering the question: what can we do to make further progress against child mortality?