Child mortality

In 2017 an estimated 6.3 million children and young adolescents

died, mostly from preventable causes.

 2.5 million deaths occurring in the first month of life

 1.6 million at age 1–11 months
 1.3 million at age 1−4 years
 5.4 million under 5 years (85% of all child mortalities)
 0.9 million deaths occurred among children aged 5−14.

The greatest risk to a child is in their first month of life.

UNICEF 2018
Around the world there has been remarkable progress in child survival:

 The under-five mortality rate has fallen from 93 deaths / 1000 live births
in 1990 to 39 / 1000 in 2017 (58% reduction)

 In 74 countries, the under-five mortality rate was reduced by more

than two-thirds

 On average, 15,000 children died every day in 2017, compared to

34,000 in 1990.

 The largest improvements in survival occurred among children aged

1−4 years.
UNICEF 2018
http://gamapserver.who.int/mapLibrary/Files/Maps/global_underfivemortality_1990.png
http://gamapserver.who.int/mapLibrary/Files/Maps/global_underfivemortality_1990.png
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality?year=2015
UNICEF 2018
Globally, the risk of a child dying in the country with the highest
under-5 mortality rate is about 60 times higher than in the country
with the lowest under-5 mortality rate.

Children continue to face widespread regional and income

disparities in their chances of survival: Sub-Saharan Africa
remains the region with the highest under-five mortality rate in
the world, with 1 in 13 children dying before their 5th birthday

The Australia and New Zealand region has the lowest regional
under-five mortality rate, with 1 in 263 children dying before their
5th birthday.
UNICEF 2018
Infectious diseases, which disproportionally effect children in poorer
settings, are one of the main causes of child mortalities.

The leading causes of death among children under age 5 include:

 preterm (premature) birth complications (18%)
 pneumonia (16%)
 Intrapartum (birth process) related events (12%)
 congenital anomalies (9%)
 diarrhoea (8%),
 neonatal sepsis (7%)
 malaria (5%).
WHO 2016
https://www.who.int/gho/child_health/mortality/causes/en/
Causes of child mortalities,
2015
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-
6736%2816%2931593-8
On current trends, 56 million children under 5 years of age are
projected to die between 2018 and 2030, half of them newborns.

The UN has a Sustainable Development Goal target to reduce the

child mortality rate of all countries to below 25 deaths per 1000
live births, by 2030.

If this is achieved, 10 million lives will be saved.

UNICEF 2018
Most of the causes of child mortality are preventable and
can be addressed through:
 immunisation and other simple precautions to reduce the
spread of common childhood diseases
 sufficient and clean water
 sanitation
 equitable distribution of food resources
 better family planning, and maternal and neonatal
healthcare support
 Population pyramids consist of a pair of
back-to-back bar graphs, one for each sex,
that displays the distribution of a population
in all age groups and in both sexes. The X-
axis shows the population numbers (or %)
and the Y-axis lists age groups.
 The shape of a population pyramid can be
used to interpret a population: a pyramid
with a very wide base and a narrow top
section suggests a population with both high
birth rate and high death rates, whereas a
pyramid with a wider top half and a
narrower base would suggest an ageing
population with low fertility rates.
 They allow for the investigation the
demographic characteristics of a place, or
for comparing the population of two places
(or change over time of one place).
Rapid population growth occurs in As countries develop economically, the
developing countries: they have a high birth birth rate slows and death rate declines
rate and high death rate
Population pyramid

https://populationeducation.org/resource/power-of-the-pyramids/
 Will reducing child mortality mean the population of
developing nations will increase even more rapidly,
placing even greater strain on these nations?

https://www.gapminder.org/answers/will-saving-poor-children-lead-to-overpopulation/

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-vs-child-mortality?endpointsOnly=1

https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$chart-type=bubbles

https://www.gapminder.org/downloads/mdg-4-reducing-child-mortality/