Historical chart and dataset showing China infant mortality rate by year from 1950 to 2025.

The infant mortality rate in China declined to 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023. As a result, the infant mortality rate in China saw its lowest number in 2023 with 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate refers to the number of newborns not expected to survive past the first year of life. This is generally expressed as a value per 1,000 live births, and infant mortality also includes neonatal mortality (deaths within the first 28 days of life).

The infant mortality rate in China, for children under the age of one year old, was approximately 195 deaths per thousand births in 1950. This means that for all babies born in 1950, almost one in five did not survive past their first birthday. This rate fell to just under 130 deaths in 1955, before increasing slightly in the next decade, as Chairman Mao Zedong's 'Great Leap Forward' failed to industrialize the country and created a famine that killed millions of people. Over the past half century, China's infant mortality rate has decreased gradually to just ten deaths per thousand births today.

UNICEF's country profile for China, including under-five mortality rates, child health, education and sanitation data.

The infant mortality rate in China decreased by 0.4 deaths per 1,000 live births (-6.78 percent) since the previous year. As a result, the infant mortality rate in China saw its lowest number in 2020 with 5.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.The infant mortality rate refers to the number of newborns not expected to survive past the first year of life. This is generally expressed as a value per 1,000 live births, and infant mortality also includes neonatal mortality (deaths within the first 28 days of life).Find more statistics on other topics about China with key insights such as death rate, crude birth rate, and total fertility rate.

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for China (SPDYNIMRTINCHN) from 1969 to 2023 about mortality, infant, China, and rate.

The child mortality rate in China, for children under the age of five, was 417 deaths per thousand births in 1850. This means that for all children born in 1850, almost 42 percent did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 170 years, this number has dropped drastically, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just twelve deaths per thousand births. The sharpest decrease came between 1950 and 1955, as the Chinese Civil War ended, and the country began to recover from the Second World War. The decline then stopped between 1955 and 1965, due to famines caused by Chairman Mao Zedong's attempted Great Leap Forward, which was a failed attempt to industrialize China in the late twentieth century.

China: Infant deaths per 1000 live births: The latest value from 2022 is 5 deaths per 1000 live births, unchanged from 5 deaths per 1000 live births in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 19 deaths per 1000 live births, based on data from 187 countries. Historically, the average for China from 1969 to 2022 is 34 deaths per 1000 live births. The minimum value, 5 deaths per 1000 live births, was reached in 2021 while the maximum of 83 deaths per 1000 live births was recorded in 1969.

Forecast: Infant Mortality in China 2023 - 2027 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Forecast: Infant Mortality Rate in China 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Forecast: Female Infant Mortality Rate in China 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Mortality rate, infant, male (per 1,000 live births) in China was reported at 4.7 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. China - Mortality rate, infant, male (per 1,000 live births) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

Number of infant deaths in China was reported at 40795 deaths in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. China - Number of infant deaths - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on May of 2025.

Forecast: Male Infant Mortality Rate in China 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

In 2021, the mortality rate of congenital heart disease among infants in China dropped to 14.9 per 100,000 in urban areas and 23 per 100,000 in rural regions. Although the rate dropped substantially in the past decade, the disease, together with other types of congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal abnormalities remained a major killer of children in China.

UNICEF's country profile for China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, including under-five mortality rates, child health, education and sanitation data.

Forecast: Infant Mortality Rate in Urban Areas in China 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

The Poverty Mapping Project: Global Subnational Infant Mortality Rates data set consists of estimates of infant mortality rates for the year 2000. The infant mortality rate for a region or country is defined as the number of children who die before their first birthday for every 1,000 live births. The data products include a shapefile (vector data) of rates, grids (raster data) of rates (per 10,000 live births in order to preserve precision in integer format), births (the rate denominator) and deaths (the rate numerator), and a tabular data set of the same and associated data. Over 10,000 national and subnational Units are represented in the tabular and grid data sets, while the shapefile uses approximately 1,000 Units in order to protect the intellectual property of source data sets for Brazil, China, and Mexico. This data set is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

UNICEF's country profile for China, Macao Special Administrative Region, including under-five mortality rates, child health, education and sanitation data.

The health costs of economic uncertainty always remain a major concern among policymakers of China. The theoretical and empirical literature on the economic uncertainty-human health nexus is still in its infancy stage. This study is firmly rooted in the economic uncertainty theory advanced by Baker, Bloom, & Davis. In this study, the primary objective of the analysis is to estimate the asymmetric impact of economic uncertainty on human health in China’s economy. In order to evaluate the short and long-run estimates of economic uncertainty on human health across various quantiles, we have employed the linear and nonlinear QARDL models. The linear QARDL model shows that the long-run relationship between economic uncertainty and the infant mortality rate is positive and significant at all quantiles, while the long-run relationship between economic uncertainty and the death rate is positive and significant at higher quantiles. The nonlinear QARDL model reveals that, in the long run, the relationship between the positive shock of economic uncertainty and the infant mortality rate is positive and significant at quantiles 0.30 to 0.95, while the long-run relationship between the positive shock of economic uncertainty and the death rate is positive and significant at higher quantiles. The relationship between the negative shock of economic uncertainty and the infant mortality rate is negative and significant at the highest quantiles, while the relationship between the negative shock of economic uncertainty and death rate is negative and significant at higher quantiles in the long run. The findings indicate a positive relationship between economic uncertainty in China and higher rates of infant mortality and death. Thus, adopting suitable policies for controlling economic uncertainty can help in improving human health in China.