Child mortality has declined in all world regions In 1950…
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Child mortality has declined in all world regions
In 1950, almost one in four children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. In Africa, one in three children died.
The chart shows the change since then. In every region, the mortality rate of children has declined.
In Africa and Oceania, the child mortality rate declined 5-fold, in Asia 10-fold, and in Europe about 27-fold.
Progress was not always steady. The sharp spike in Asia around 1960 was due to the “Great Leap Forward” famine in Mao’s China, the deadliest famine in recorded history.
And the progress is far from finished. The global average has declined to 3.5%, but this still means that about 4.7 million children younger than five years died in 2025 — 13,000 children every single day.
**Data source:** UN, World Populations Prospects (2024) https://population.un.org/wpp/
**Tools used:** Python, OWID Grapher, Figma
#education
source
In 1950, almost one in four children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. In Africa, one in three children died.
The chart shows the change since then. In every region, the mortality rate of children has declined.
In Africa and Oceania, the child mortality rate declined 5-fold, in Asia 10-fold, and in Europe about 27-fold.
Progress was not always steady. The sharp spike in Asia around 1960 was due to the “Great Leap Forward” famine in Mao’s China, the deadliest famine in recorded history.
And the progress is far from finished. The global average has declined to 3.5%, but this still means that about 4.7 million children younger than five years died in 2025 — 13,000 children every single day.
**Data source:** UN, World Populations Prospects (2024) https://population.un.org/wpp/
**Tools used:** Python, OWID Grapher, Figma
#education
source
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