The child mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of five, was 462.9 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that for every thousand babies born in 1800, over 46 percent did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just seven deaths per thousand births. Although the child mortality rate has decreased greatly over this 220 year period, there were two occasions where it increased; in the 1870s, as a result of the fourth cholera pandemic, smallpox outbreaks, and yellow fever, and in the late 1910s, due to the Spanish Flu pandemic.

This dataset of U.S. mortality trends since 1900 highlights childhood mortality rates by age group for age at death. Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000) after 1998 are calculated based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years between 2000 and 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Data on age-adjusted death rates prior to 1999 are taken from historical data (see References below). Age groups for childhood death rates are based on age at death. SOURCES CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, historical data, 1900-1998 (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm); CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov). REFERENCES National Center for Health Statistics, Data Warehouse. Comparability of cause-of-death between ICD revisions. 2008. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/comparability_icd.htm. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm. Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 9. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf. Arias E, Xu JQ. United States life tables, 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_07-508.pdf. National Center for Health Statistics. Historical Data, 1900-1998. 2009. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm.

The child mortality rate in the United Kingdom, for children under the age of five, was 329 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that approximately one in every three children born in 1800 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just four deaths per thousand births.

The child mortality rate in Canada, for children under the age of five, was 333 deaths per thousand births in the year 1830. This means that one third of all children born in 1830 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Child mortality remained above 25 percent for the remainder of the nineteenth century, before falling at a much faster rate throughout the 1900s. By the year 2020, Canada's child mortality rate is expected to be just five deaths per thousand births.

Child mortality rate of United States of America remained stable at 6.5 deaths per 1,000 live births over the last 5 years. Under-five mortality rate is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to current age-specific mortality rates.

The child mortality rate in Germany, for children under the age of five, was 340 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that more than one in every three children born in 1800 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Child mortality increased to almost fifty percent in the mid-nineteenth century, as the country industrialized and urbanized rapidly, which allowed diseases to spread much faster. This changed however, with the introduction of mandatory vaccination in 1874, which kickstarted a gradual decline in child mortality in Germany. The decline was most rapid in the first half of the twentieth century, and by the year 2020 child mortality in Germany is expected to be as low as four deaths per thousand births.

Number of infant deaths and infant mortality rates, by age group (neonatal and post-neonatal), 1991 to most recent year.

The average for 2022 based on 187 countries was 27 deaths per 1000 births. The highest value was in Niger: 121 deaths per 1000 births and the lowest value was in Estonia: 2 deaths per 1000 births. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The child mortality rate in Africa has steadily declined over the past seven decades. In 2023, it reached 63 deaths per thousand births. In 1950, child mortality was significantly higher, estimated at 327 deaths per thousand births, meaning that almost one-third of all children born in these years did not make it to their fifth birthday. While the reduction rate varies on a country-by-country basis, the overall decline can be attributed in large part to the expansion of healthcare services, improvements in nutrition and access to clean drinking water, and the implementation of large-scale immunization campaigns across the continent. The temporary slowdown in the 1980s and 1990s has been attributed in part to rapid urbanization of many parts of the continent that coincided with poor economic performance, resulting in the creation of overcrowded slums with poor access to health and sanitation services. Despite significant improvements in the continent-wide averages, there remains a significant imbalance in the continent, with Sub-Saharan countries experiencing much higher child mortality rates than those in North Africa.

The USA: Deaths of children under five years of age per 1000 live births: The latest value from 2022 is 6 deaths per 1000 births, unchanged from 6 deaths per 1000 births in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 25 deaths per 1000 births, based on data from 187 countries. Historically, the average for the USA from 1960 to 2022 is 14 deaths per 1000 births. The minimum value, 6 deaths per 1000 births, was reached in 2020 while the maximum of 30 deaths per 1000 births was recorded in 1960.

Number of deaths and mortality rates, by age group, sex, and place of residence, 1991 to most recent year.

The child mortality rate in Japan, for children under the age of five, was 363 deaths per thousand births in 1865. This meant that for every one thousand babies born in 1865, over 36 percent did not survive past their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 155 years, this number dropped drastically. Child mortality reached its lowest point ever in the five year span between 2015 and 2020, at just two deaths per one thousand births. This was the lowest of any country in the world.

China: Deaths of children five to fourteen years of age per 1000 live births: The latest value from 2022 is 1 deaths per 1000 births, unchanged from 1 deaths per 1000 births in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 3 deaths per 1000 births, based on data from 187 countries. Historically, the average for China from 1990 to 2022 is 2 deaths per 1000 births. The minimum value, 1 deaths per 1000 births, was reached in 2009 while the maximum of 4 deaths per 1000 births was recorded in 1990.

BackgroundDespite the sharp decline in global under-5 deaths since 1990, uneven progress has been achieved across and within countries. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for child mortality were met only by a few countries. Valid concerns exist as to whether the region would meet new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for under-5 mortality. We therefore examine further sources of variation by assessing age patterns, trends, and forecasts of mortality rates.Methods and findingsData came from 106 nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys (DHSs) with full birth histories from 31 SSA countries from 1990 to 2017 (a total of 524 country-years of data). We assessed the distribution of age at death through the following new demographic analyses. First, we used a direct method and full birth histories to estimate under-5 mortality rates (U5MRs) on a monthly basis. Second, we smoothed raw estimates of death rates by age and time by using a two-dimensional P-Spline approach. Third, a variant of the Lee–Carter (LC) model, designed for populations with limited data, was used to fit and forecast age profiles of mortality. We used mortality estimates from the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) to adjust, validate, and minimize the risk of bias in survival, truncation, and recall in mortality estimation. Our mortality model revealed substantive declines of death rates at every age in most countries but with notable differences in the age patterns over time. U5MRs declined from 3.3% (annual rate of reduction [ARR] 0.1%) in Lesotho to 76.4% (ARR 5.2%) in Malawi, and the pace of decline was faster on average (ARR 3.2%) than that observed for infant (IMRs) (ARR 2.7%) and neonatal (NMRs) (ARR 2.0%) mortality rates. We predict that 5 countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda) are on track to achieve the under-5 sustainable development target by 2030 (25 deaths per 1,000 live births), but only Rwanda and Tanzania would meet both the neonatal (12 deaths per 1,000 live births) and under-5 targets simultaneously. Our predicted NMRs and U5MRs were in line with those estimated by the UN IGME by 2030 and 2050 (they overlapped in 27/31 countries for NMRs and 22 for U5MRs) and by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) by 2030 (26/31 and 23/31, respectively). This study has a number of limitations, including poor data quality issues that reflected bias in the report of births and deaths, preventing reliable estimates and predictions from a few countries.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this study is the first to combine full birth histories and mortality estimates from external reliable sources to model age patterns of under-5 mortality across time in SSA. We demonstrate that countries with a rapid pace of mortality reduction (ARR ≥ 3.2%) across ages would be more likely to achieve the SDG mortality targets. However, the lower pace of neonatal mortality reduction would prevent most countries from achieving those targets: 2 countries would reach them by 2030, 13 between 2030 and 2050, and 13 after 2050.

Background: Our previous study analyzed the age trajectory of mortality (ATM) in 14 European countries, while this study aimed at investigating ATM in other continents and in countries with a higher level of mortality. Data from 11 Non-European countries were used.Methods: The number of deaths was extracted from the WHO mortality database. The Halley method was used to calculate the mortality rates in all possible calendar years and all countries combined. This method enables us to combine more countries and more calendar years in one hypothetical population.Results: The age trajectory of total mortality (ATTM) and also ATM due to specific groups of diseases were very similar in the 11 non-European countries and in the 14 European countries. The level of mortality did not affect the main results found in European countries. The inverse proportion was valid for ATTM in non-European countries with two exceptions.Slower or no mortality decrease with age was detected in the first year of life, while the inverse proportion model was valid for the age range (1, 10) years in most of the main chapters of ICD10.Conclusions: The decrease in child mortality with age may be explained as the result of the depletion of individuals with congenital impairment. The majority of deaths up to the age of 10 years were related to congenital impairments, and the decrease in child mortality rate with age was a demonstration of population heterogeneity. The congenital impairments were latent and may cause death even if no congenital impairment was detected.

1. Data source: Calculated by the Department of Health using the National Simple Life Table issued by the Statistics Department of the Ministry of the Interior. 2. Definition: The probability of death from birth to less than 5 years of age.

The Mortality - Infant Deaths (from Linked Birth / Infant Death Records) online databases on CDC WONDER provide counts and rates for deaths of children under 1 year of age, occuring within the United States to U.S. residents. Information from death certificates has been linked to corresponding birth certificates. Data are available by county of mother's residence, child's age, underlying cause of death, sex, birth weight, birth plurality, birth order, gestational age at birth, period of prenatal care, maternal race and ethnicity, maternal age, maternal education and marital status. Data are available since 1995. The data are produced by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The child mortality rate in Sweden, for children under the age of five, was 381 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that approximately 38 percent of all children born in 1800 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, particularly from 1880 onwards, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just two deaths per thousand births, which is the lowest in the world.

Latvia: Deaths of children five to fourteen years of age per 1000 live births: The latest value from 2022 is 1 deaths per 1000 births, unchanged from 1 deaths per 1000 births in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 3 deaths per 1000 births, based on data from 187 countries. Historically, the average for Latvia from 1990 to 2022 is 2 deaths per 1000 births. The minimum value, 1 deaths per 1000 births, was reached in 2007 while the maximum of 3 deaths per 1000 births was recorded in 1990.

Users can customize tables, graphs and maps on data related to children in a specific state or in the United States as a whole. Comparisons can be made between states. Background KIDS COUNT Data Center is part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and serves to provide information on the status of children in America. The ten core indicators of interest under "Data by State" are: percent of low birth weight babies, infant mortality rate, child death rate, rate of teen deaths by accident, suicide and homicide, teen birth rate, percent of children living with parents who do not have full-time year-round employment, percent of teens who are high school drop outs, percent of teens not working and not in school, percent of children in poverty, and percent of families with children headed by a single parent. A number of other indicators, plus demographic and income information, are also included. "Data across States" is grouped into the following broad categories: demographics, education, economic well-being, family and community, health, safety and risk behaviors, and other. User Functionality Users can determine the view of the data- by table, line graph or map and can print or email the results. Data is available by state and across states. Data Across States allows users to access the raw data. Data is often present over a number of years. For a number of indicators under "Data Across States," users can view results by age, gender/ sex, or race/ ethnicity. Data Notes KIDS COUNT started in 1990. The most recent year of data is 2009 (or 2008 depending on the state, with some data available from 2010). Data is available on the national and state level, and for some states, at the county and city level.