In 2022, 4.9 million children worldwide died before their fifth birthday – half of them newborns. That is the lowest death rate ever recorded for the youngest children since researchers started collecting data. That appears from published on Tuesday research by child aid organization Unicef. After the turn of the century, the number of children under the age of five who died fell by more than half. There was also a decrease in the previous years.
Investments in healthcare in low- and middle-income countries, with greater access to vaccinations, breastfeeding assistance, maternity care and treatment for diseases such as pneumonia and malaria, are the main reason for the decline, according to the researchers. Unicef cites Cambodia, Malawi, Mongolia and Rwanda as examples, where child mortality has been reduced by three quarters since 2000.
Nevertheless, in 2022, in addition to the 4.9 million children under the age of five, 2.1 million young people between the ages of five and twenty-four also died. Most of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The research shows once again that children’s chances of survival are largely related to their place of birth. In the South of the Sahara, a newborn baby is eighteen times more likely to die than in Australia.
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Conflict areas
Unicef recorded 57 percent of child deaths under the age of five in Sub-Saharan Africa, while that area accounts for 30 percent of newborn babies worldwide. In addition to poverty and access to health care, being born in a country at war also affects children’s chances of survival. A spokesperson explains that children in conflict areas are three times more likely to die.
The researchers do not make any forecasts in the report for the years after 2022, but the wars in Gaza and Sudan may have an influence on the mortality rate. More than 15 percent of the children in the north of the Gaza Strip suffers from acute malnutritionwhich increases the risk of medical complications and death.
Children born in war-torn Sudan also have a relatively lower chance of survival: only 40 percent of the population in the south of the country has access to health care. There is also a major famine. In addition to children, the life expectancy of mothers in the south of the country is also low: the country has 789 deceased mothers per 100,000 live babies born.