Global Child Mortality Rate Hits New Historic Low

The share of children who die before their fifth birthday has fallen from 22 percent in 1960 to 3.6 percent today — the largest gain in the history of human welfare.

The share of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday has fallen to 3.6 percent — a new historic low, according to figures compiled by UNICEF and the WHO.

In 1960, the equivalent figure was 22 percent. In 1990, it was 9.3 percent. Today it is below 4 percent — a rate of decline unlike any other recorded metric of human welfare.

Immunization programs are cited as the single largest driver of the change, followed by clean water, better nutrition, oral rehydration therapy for diarrheal disease, and mosquito nets for malaria prevention.

In sub-Saharan Africa — historically the region with the highest child mortality rates — deaths of children under five have fallen by roughly 60 percent since 2000. The pace of decline remains high.

The report notes that no country has yet reached the theoretical floor of near-zero mortality. Small further gains would still translate into hundreds of thousands of lives saved annually.

For the researchers who track this metric, it is the underreported story of our time. "Fewer children are dying than at any point in the recorded history of our species," one demographer said. "That should be the headline more often."