United Nations reports on child deaths around the world: 1990 to 2013

United Nations has released their “Levels and Trends in Child Mortality 2014” report which reveals the child death rate of countries, with statistics to 2013. Global progress has been made in reducing child deaths since 1990, the report indicated (Gulf Today, September 17, 2014). Worldwide the number of deaths of children under the age of five years has declined from 12.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2013. About 2.8 million babies died globally within the first month of birth, which represents about 44% of all under-five deaths.

About half of all under-five deaths occur in five countries (in order from highest deaths): India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and China. India (at 21%) and Nigeria (13%) combined accounted for 34% (a third) of all under-five deaths in the world. Around 66% of neo-natal deaths (babies dying in their first month) occur in 10 countries.

The report also found that in 2013 the children under five years died mainly from preventable causes. The leading causes of death were pre-term complications (17%), pneumonia (15%), labour and delivery at birth (11%), diarrhoea (9%), and malaria (7%).

India’s child mortality rate dropped by more than half since 1990 (from 3.3 million in 1990 to 1.3 million in 2013), but in 2013 it still recorded the highest number of deaths among children below the age of five years in the world. India’s infant mortality rate fell from 88 deaths per one thousand live births in 1990 to 41 in 2013, and the neo-natal mortality rate fell from 51 deaths per one thousand live births in 1990 to 29 in 2013. The almost-50% decline shows that India is “beginning to lead the way” for other countries, said the UN report.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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