As of 2023, the countries with the highest death rates worldwide were Monaco, Bulgaria, and Latvia. In these countries, there were ** to ** deaths per 1,000 people. The country with the lowest death rate is Qatar, where there is just *** death per 1,000 people. Leading causes of death The leading causes of death worldwide are, by far, cardiovascular diseases, accounting for ** percent of all deaths in 2021. That year, there were **** million deaths worldwide from ischaemic heart disease and **** million from stroke. Interestingly, a worldwide survey from that year found that people greatly underestimate the proportion of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease, but overestimate the proportion of deaths caused by suicide, interpersonal violence, and substance use disorders. Death in the United States In 2023, there were around **** million deaths in the United States. The leading causes of death in the United States are currently heart disease and cancer, accounting for a combined ** percent of all deaths in 2023. Lung and bronchus cancer is the deadliest form of cancer worldwide, as well as in the United States. In the U.S. this form of cancer is predicted to cause around ****** deaths among men alone in the year 2025. Prostate cancer is the second-deadliest cancer for men in the U.S. while breast cancer is the second deadliest for women. In 2023, the tenth leading cause of death in the United States was COVID-19. Deaths due to COVID-19 resulted in a significant rise in the total number of deaths in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019, and it was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. during those years.

The average for 2022 based on 195 countries was 8.37 deaths per 1000 people. The highest value was in Ukraine: 21.4 deaths per 1000 people and the lowest value was in Qatar: 1.08 deaths per 1000 people. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

This statistic shows the 20 countries* with the highest infant mortality rate in 2024. An estimated 101.3 infants per 1,000 live births died in the first year of life in Afghanistan in 2024. Infant and child mortality Infant mortality usually refers to the death of children younger than one year. Child mortality, which is often used synonymously with infant mortality, is the death of children younger than five. Among the main causes are pneumonia, diarrhea – which causes dehydration – and infections in newborns, with malnutrition also posing a severe problem. As can be seen above, most countries with a high infant mortality rate are developing countries or emerging countries, most of which are located in Africa. Good health care and hygiene are crucial in reducing child mortality; among the countries with the lowest infant mortality rate are exclusively developed countries, whose inhabitants usually have access to clean water and comprehensive health care. Access to vaccinations, antibiotics and a balanced nutrition also help reducing child mortality in these regions. In some countries, infants are killed if they turn out to be of a certain gender. India, for example, is known as a country where a lot of girls are aborted or killed right after birth, as they are considered to be too expensive for poorer families, who traditionally have to pay a costly dowry on the girl’s wedding day. Interestingly, the global mortality rate among boys is higher than that for girls, which could be due to the fact that more male infants are actually born than female ones. Other theories include a stronger immune system in girls, or more premature births among boys.

In 2022, Germany had an overall crude death rate of 13 per 1,000 people. In comparison, the death rate in South Korea was seven per 1,000 people. This statistic represents a ranking of select developed and developing countries based on death rates as of 2022.

The average for 2021 based on 187 countries was 20 deaths per 1000 live births. The highest value was in Sierra Leone: 78 deaths per 1000 live births and the lowest value was in San Marino: 1 deaths per 1000 live births. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 210 countries relative to their population, Peru had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 13, 2022. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 557.8 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 6.3 million. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

The difficulties of death figures

This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths (which were corrected lowered again by the same amount on August 18). This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for High Income Countries (SPDYNIMRTINHIC) from 1990 to 2023 about mortality, infant, income, and rate.

All countries of the 20 countries worldwide with the highest number of children under the age of five dying per 1,000 live births were found in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Niger, Nigeria, and Somalia topping the list. This made it the world region with the significantly highest child mortality rate in 2023.

This dataset provides values for CORONAVIRUS DEATHS reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

In 2023, ******* had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with around *** maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. ******* was followed by **** with a rate of *** maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This statistic shows the 20 countries with the highest maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births in 2023.

The average for 2022 based on 47 countries was 8.41 deaths per 1000 people. The highest value was in Lesotho: 14.07 deaths per 1000 people and the lowest value was in Senegal: 5.55 deaths per 1000 people. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Chad TD: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 58.700 Ratio in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 60.300 Ratio for 2022. Chad TD: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 114.000 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2023, with 64 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 142.000 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 58.700 Ratio in 2023. Chad TD: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Chad – Table TD.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.;Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.;Weighted average;Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys. Aggregate data for LIC, UMC, LMC, HIC are computed based on the groupings for the World Bank fiscal year in which the data was released by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

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.

Canada CA: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 4.700 Ratio in 2023. This stayed constant from the previous number of 4.700 Ratio for 2022. Canada CA: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 7.000 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2023, with 64 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 28.600 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 4.700 Ratio in 2023. Canada CA: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Canada – Table CA.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Under-five mortality rate, female is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn female baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to female age-specific mortality rates of the specified year.;Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.;Weighted average;Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys. Aggregate data for LIC, UMC, LMC, HIC are computed based on the groupings for the World Bank fiscal year in which the data was released by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. This is a sex-disaggregated indicator for Sustainable Development Goal 3.2.1 [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/].

Rank, number of deaths, percentage of deaths, and age-specific mortality rates for the leading causes of death, by age group and sex, 2000 to most recent year.

In 2021, Niger had the highest mortality rate among children aged under five years, with an average of around 115 children dying, per one thousand live births, under five years of age. This statistic shows the countries with the highest mortality rate among children aged under five years as of 2021.

United States - Infant Mortality Rate for High Income Countries was 4.10000 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Infant Mortality Rate for High Income Countries reached a record high of 36.40000 in January of 1960 and a record low of 4.10000 in January of 2020. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Infant Mortality Rate for High Income Countries - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 6.000 Ratio in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 6.200 Ratio for 2015. United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 6.800 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2017, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 10.400 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 6.000 Ratio in 2017. United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate, male is the number of male infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 male live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

The average for 2020 based on 182 countries was 138 deaths per 100,000 births. The highest value was in Chad: 1063 deaths per 100,000 births and the lowest value was in Belarus: 1 deaths per 100,000 births. The indicator is available from 2000 to 2020. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Luxembourg LU: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 2.100 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 2.200 Ratio for 2015. Luxembourg LU: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 2.500 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.100 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 2.100 Ratio in 2016. Luxembourg LU: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Luxembourg – Table LU.World Bank: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate, male is the number of male infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 male live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted Average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.