This statistic shows the 20 countries * with the lowest infant mortality rate in 2024. An estimated 1.5 out of 1,000 live births died in the first year of life in Slovenia and Singapore in 2024. Infant mortality Infant mortality rates are often used as an indicator of the health and well-being of a nation. Monaco, Iceland, and Japan are among the top three countries with the lowest infant mortality rates with around 2 infant deaths per 1,000 infants within their first year of life. Generally, the countries with the lowest infant mortality also have some of the highest average life expectancy figures. Additionally, the countries with the highest density of physicians and doctors also generally report low infant mortality. Yet, many different factors contribute to differing rates, including the overall income of a country, health spending per capita, a mother’s level of education, environmental conditions, and medical infrastructure, to name a few. This creates a lot of variation concerning the level of childbirth and infant care around the world. The countries with the highest rates of infant mortality include Afghanistan, Mali, and Somalia. These countries experience around 100 infant deaths per 1,000 infants in their first year of life. While the reasons for high rates of infant mortality are numerous, the leading causes of death for children under the year five around the world are Pneumonia, Diarrhea, and Prematurity.

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.

One in every 100 children dies before completing one year of life. Around 68 percent of infant mortality is attributed to deaths of children before completing 1 month. 15,000 children die every day – Child mortality is an everyday tragedy of enormous scale that rarely makes the headlines Child mortality rates have declined in all world regions, but the world is not on track to reach the Sustainable Development Goal for child mortality Before the Modern Revolution child mortality was very high in all societies that we have knowledge of – a quarter of all children died in the first year of life, almost half died before reaching the end of puberty Over the last two centuries all countries in the world have made very rapid progress against child mortality. From 1800 to 1950 global mortality has halved from around 43% to 22.5%. Since 1950 the mortality rate has declined five-fold to 4.5% in 2015. All countries in the world have benefitted from this progress In the past it was very common for parents to see children die, because both, child mortality rates and fertility rates were very high. In Europe in the mid 18th century parents lost on average between 3 and 4 of their children Based on this overview we are asking where the world is today – where are children dying and what are they dying from?

5.4 million children died in 2017 – Where did these children die? Pneumonia is the most common cause of death, preterm births and neonatal disorders is second, and diarrheal diseases are third – What are children today dying from? This is the basis for answering the question what can we do to make further progress against child mortality? We will extend this entry over the course of 2020.

@article{owidchildmortality, author = {Max Roser, Hannah Ritchie and Bernadeta Dadonaite}, title = {Child and Infant Mortality}, journal = {Our World in Data}, year = {2013}, note = {https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality} }

Global Infant Mortality Rate by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for Least Developed Countries (SPDYNIMRTINLDC) from 1990 to 2023 about mortality, infant, and rate.

Infant mortality statistics for countries worldwide

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

Global Male Infant Mortality Rate by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

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

Context

Infant mortality is the death of an infant before his or her first birthday. The infant mortality rate is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.

Content

The dataset contains the mortality rate for individual countries over the years for both genders.

Acknowledgements

The source of this dataset is the publicly available dataset at Unicef.

In 2023, the state of Mississippi had the highest infant mortality rate in the United States, with around 8.94 deaths per 1,000 live births. Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the age of one. The countries with the lowest infant mortality rates worldwide are Slovenia, Singapore, and Iceland. The countries with the highest infant mortality rates include Afghanistan, Somalia, and the Central African Republic. Infant mortality in the United States The infant mortality rate in the United States has decreased over the past few decades, reaching a low of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022. The most common causes of infant death in the United States are congenital malformations, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome. In 2023, congenital malformations accounted for around 111 infant deaths per 100,000 live births.

Between 2020 and 2025, Pakistan had the highest infant mortality rate throughout South Asia, with an estimated ** infant deaths for every one thousand live births. Comparatively, there were **** infant deaths for every one thousand live births in the Maldives between 2020 to 2025.

Global Female Infant Mortality Rate by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

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

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

This dataset contains three CSV files documenting the relationship between log GDP and infant mortality rates for 30 countries. The data has been compiled to analyze the impact of economic status on child mortality rates. Each file includes relevant variables for conducting cross-national research on this topic.Files:Country_LogGDP.csvThis file contains the log-transformed GDP data for 30 countries.Variables:Country: The name of the country.Year: The year of the observation.LogGDP: The log-transformed value of the country's GDP for the corresponding year.Infant_Mortality.csvThis file provides the infant mortality rate data (number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births) for the same 30 countries.Variables:Country: The name of the country.Year: The year of the observation.Infant_Mortality: The infant mortality rate for the corresponding year.Average_LogGDP_InfantMortality.csvThis file contains the average log GDP and infant mortality rates for the 30 countries.Variables:Country: The name of the country.Average_LogGDP: The average log-transformed GDP for each country over the time period.Average_Infant_Mortality: The average infant mortality rate for each country over the time period.

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

In 2023, the infant mortality rate in India was at about 24.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, a significant decrease from previous years. Infant mortality as an indicatorThe infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1,000 live births. This rate is an important key indicator for a country’s health and standard of living; a low infant mortality rate indicates a high standard of healthcare. Causes of infant mortality include premature birth, sepsis or meningitis, sudden infant death syndrome, and pneumonia. Globally, the infant mortality rate has shrunk from 63 infant deaths per 1,000 live births to 27 since 1990 and is forecast to drop to 8 infant deaths per 1,000 live births by the year 2100. India’s rural problemWith 32 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, India is neither among the countries with the highest nor among those with the lowest infant mortality rate. Its decrease indicates an increase in medical care and hygiene, as well as a decrease in female infanticide. Increasing life expectancy at birth is another indicator that shows that the living conditions of the Indian population are improving. Still, India’s inhabitants predominantly live in rural areas, where standards of living as well as access to medical care and hygiene are traditionally lower and more complicated than in cities. Public health programs are thus put in place by the government to ensure further improvement.

United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 5.600 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5.700 Ratio for 2015. United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 10.000 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 25.900 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 5.600 Ratio in 2016. United States US: 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 USA – Table US.World Bank: 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.

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 November of 2025.