The infant mortality rate in Kenya decreased by 1.1 deaths per 1,000 live births (-3.07 percent) compared to the previous year. This marks the lowest infant mortality rate during the observed period. The infant mortality rate is the number of newborns who do not survive past the first 12 months of life. This is generally expressed as a value per 1,000 live births, and also includes neonatal mortality (deaths within the first 28 days of life).Find more statistics on other topics about Kenya with key insights such as fertility rate of women aged between 15 and 19 years old, crude birth rate, and total fertility rate.

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

In 1950, the infant mortality rate in Kenya was 187 deaths for every 1,000 live births. This means that just under 19 percent of all children born in 1950 were not expected to live past their first birthday. However, as the use of insecticides such as DDT and insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) became more widespread, and several anti-malarial drugs became more widely available, malaria and other insect-borne diseases (one of the major sources of infant mortality in the country) saw a sharp reduction in Kenya, leading to a large reduction in infant mortality from the 1950s to the mid-1980s.

In the late 1980s, this downward trend would slow, as an economic depression and the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic would lead to both an increase in complications for children born with the disease, as well as increased strain on the Kenyan healthcare system as a whole. After remaining at 74 deaths per 1000 births through the remainder of the 20th century, infant mortality would continue to fall again, in part the result of significantly improved access to HIV counselling and treatments and progress in malaria eradication efforts. In 2020, it is estimated that for every 1,000 live births, there will be 36 deaths before the first birthday.

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

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for Kenya (SPDYNIMRTINKEN) from 1960 to 2023 about Kenya, mortality, infant, and rate.

Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 33.600 Ratio in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 34.300 Ratio for 2016. Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 67.500 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 117.400 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 33.600 Ratio in 2017. Kenya KE: 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 Kenya – Table KE.World Bank.WDI: 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.

Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births) in Kenya was reported at 34.7 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Kenya - Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

In 1900, the child mortality rate in Kenya was just over 507 deaths for every 1,000 live births. This means that more than half of all children born in this years did not survive past their fifth birthday. This rate would remain relatively constant through the first thirty years of the 20th century. However, child mortality would begin to sharply fall beginning in the 1930s, in part the result of a rapid modernization campaign between the 1930s to 1950s. In the post-war years, as the use of insecticides such as DDT and insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) became more widespread, and several anti-malarial drugs became more widely available, malaria and other insect-borne diseases saw a sharp reduction in Kenya, which, when combined with an expansion of healthcare access throughout the country, led to a large reduction in child mortality from the 1950s to the mid-1980s.

However, in the late 1980s, this downward trend would slow, as an economic depression and the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic would lead to both an increase in complications for children born with the disease, as well as place an increased strain on the Kenyan healthcare system as a whole. After reaching a record low of 106 deaths in 1990, child mortality would rise for the first time in 65 years in 1995 to 108 deaths per 1,000 births. However, thanks in part to significantly improved access to HIV counselling and treatments, progress in malaria eradication efforts, and overall improvement in the economy, child mortality would begin to fall again, and in 2020, it is estimated that for every 1,000 live births, over 95 percent of all children will make it past the age of five.

Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Male: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 53.200 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 55.100 Ratio for 2015. Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Male: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 66.600 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 106.400 Ratio in 2000 and a record low of 53.200 Ratio in 2016. Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: 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 Kenya – Table KE.World Bank: Health Statistics. Under-five mortality rate, male is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn male baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to male 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.

Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 30.100 Ratio in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 31.500 Ratio for 2015. Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 36.000 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2017, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 60.500 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 30.100 Ratio in 2017. Kenya KE: 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 Kenya – Table KE.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.

Mortality rate, infant, male (per 1,000 live births) in Kenya was reported at 38.3 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Kenya - 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.

Mortality rate, infant, female (per 1,000 live births) in Kenya was reported at 30.9 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Kenya - Mortality rate, infant, female (per 1,000 live births) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

In 2023, the total life expectancy at birth in Kenya remained nearly unchanged at around 63.65 years. Nevertheless, 2023 still represents a peak in the life expectancy at birth in Kenya. These figures refer to the expected lifespan of the average newborn in a given country or region, providing that mortality patterns at the time of birth remain constant thereafter.Find more statistics on other topics about Kenya with key insights such as infant mortality rate, fertility rate of women aged between 15 and 19 years old, and death rate.

Number of infant deaths in Kenya was reported at 51498 deaths in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Kenya - Number of infant deaths - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

27,2 (deaths per 1000 live births) in 1999.

36,7 (deaths per 1000 live births) in 1999.

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.

56,5 (deaths per 1000 live births) in 1999.

Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 41.500 Ratio in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 44.500 Ratio for 2015. Kenya KE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 53.900 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2017, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 98.400 Ratio in 2000 and a record low of 41.500 Ratio in 2017. Kenya KE: 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 Kenya – Table KE.World Bank.WDI: 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.

30,0 (deaths per 1000 live births) in 1999.