Child deaths have dropped by over 50% since 2000 due to vaccines, clean water, and maternal health improvements.
Child mortality has fallen dramatically over the past three decades, dropping from about 12.6 million deaths in 1990 to 4.9 million in 2022, a decline of roughly sixty percent. This improvement comes from wider vaccine access, better maternal and newborn care, cleaner water, malaria prevention, and rising living standards across many regions. The most authoritative source for these figures is the UN Inter‑agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation’s *Levels & Trends in Child Mortality: 2023 Report*, published jointly by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, and UN DESA.