Tremendous progress in child survival has been made over the past two decades. And yet, one child or young adolescent died every five seconds in 2018. The vast majority of these deaths (85 per cent) occur in the first 5 years of life, of which almost half (47 per cent) happen during the first month, largely due to treatable causes such as infectious diseases. Although progress has been made in every age group, it has been uneven and largely based on country wealth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 1 in 13 children die before their fifth birthday – a number that is 16 times higher than in high-income countries where the ratio is 1 in 199. The latest Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2019 from UNICEF and partners in the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), shows the full scope of child mortality rates across the world – from newborns to adolescents – as well as the progress made toward meeting the SDG targets by 2030.
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