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.

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

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.

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia (SPDYNIMRTINECA) from 1990 to 2023 about Central Asia, mortality, infant, Europe, and rate.

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} }

The Global Subnational Infant Mortality Rates, Version 2.01 consist of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) estimates for 234 countries and territories, 143 of which include subnational Units. The data are benchmarked to the year 2015 (Version 1 was benchmarked to the year 2000), and are drawn from national offices, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), and other sources from 2006 to 2014. In addition to Infant Mortality Rates, Version 2.01 includes crude estimates of births and infant deaths, which could be aggregated or disaggregated to different geographies to calculate infant mortality rates at different scales or resolutions, where births are the rate denominator and infant deaths are the rate numerator. Boundary inputs are derived primarily from the Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4) data collection. National and subnational data are mapped to grid cells at a spatial resolution of 30 arc-seconds (~1 km) (Version 1 has a spatial resolution of 1/4 degree, ~28 km at the equator), allowing for easy integration with demographic, environmental, and other spatial data.

United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Least Developed Countries was 39.66168 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Least Developed Countries reached a record high of 160.79593 in January of 1966 and a record low of 39.66168 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Least Developed Countries - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Latin America and Caribbean (SPDYNIMRTINLAC) from 1990 to 2023 about Caribbean Economies, Latin America, mortality, infant, and rate.

The global infant mortality rate decreased from 1990 to 2023 and is predicted to continue to fall in the coming decades. In 2023, there were approximately 27.3 infant deaths per 1,000 liver births worldwide, a number that is expected to drop below 10 by 2100. As a result of this, as well as other developments, the world's population increased over the last decades and is predicted to continue to increase in the coming decades.

Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific was 12.31491 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific reached a record high of 86.00000 in January of 1969 and a record low of 11.55135 in January of 2020. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in East Asia and Pacific - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on October of 2025.

The Global Subnational Infant Mortality Rates, Version 2.01 consist of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) estimates for 234 countries and territories, 143 of which include subnational Units. The data are benchmarked to the year 2015 (Version 1 was benchmarked to the year 2000), and are drawn from national offices, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), and other sources from 2006 to 2014. In addition to Infant Mortality Rates, Version 2.01 includes crude estimates of births and infant deaths, which could be aggregated or disaggregated to different geographies to calculate infant mortality rates at different scales or resolutions, where births are the rate denominator and infant deaths are the rate numerator. Boundary inputs are derived primarily from the Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4) data collection. National and subnational data are mapped to grid cells at a spatial resolution of 30 arc-seconds (~1 km) (Version 1 has a spatial resolution of 1/4 degree, ~28 km at the equator), allowing for easy integration with demographic, environmental, and other spatial data.

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa (SPDYNIMRTINMNA) from 1990 to 2023 about North Africa, Middle East, mortality, infant, and rate.

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).

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.

Japan JP: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 1.800 Ratio in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 2.000 Ratio for 2015. Japan JP: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 2.200 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2017, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4.200 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 1.800 Ratio in 2017. Japan JP: Mortality Rate: Infant: 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 Japan – Table JP.World Bank: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate, female is the number of female infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 female 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 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.

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Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia was 11.88604 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia reached a record high of 70.50000 in January of 1970 and a record low of 9.25639 in January of 2020. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on November of 2025.

Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa was 19.20260 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa reached a record high of 168.40000 in January of 1960 and a record low of 19.13070 in January of 2020. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Infant Mortality Rate for Developing Countries in Middle East and North Africa - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.