Sovereign and dependent territory rows of the World Bank “Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births)” indicator (top 30 by most recent year). The value is the number of children per 1,000 live births who die before their fifth birthday. Aggregates (region.id === “NA”) excluded.
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How to use this chart
Play/Pause starts and stops the year-by-year animation, the year slider jumps to any year, and the speed selector (0.5×, 1×, 2×) changes playback speed. Each year shows the top 12 entries out of the 30 held in the dataset.
About this ranking
About this metric. “Under-Five Mortality Rate by Country (Time Series)” reformats data published by the World Bank (World Bank indicator code SH.DYN.MORT). The value is the number of children per 1,000 live births who die before their fifth birthday; the underlying figures are UN IGME estimates.
What to watch. This is a race you want everyone to lose: even the countries stuck at the top have cut their rates to roughly a third since 1990 — Niger from 332 to 111, South Sudan from 301 to 97. Shrinking bars are the good news here.
Caveats. Many countries lack complete birth and death registration, so the values are modelled estimates rather than direct counts. This differs from the infant mortality rate (under 1 year). Aggregate rows (regions, income groups) are excluded.
Trends in the data
The 30-country average fell from 282.15 in 1960 to 72.76 in 2024, a quarter of its former level. The peak was 283.91 in 1963, and it has declined for more than sixty years since. A rate of 282 per 1,000 live births means more than one child in four did not reach their fifth birthday. That is now 72.76. What ought to be a bleak chart is in fact the clearest record of improvement on this site.
Looking at the largest declines shows that the improvement happened in the worst-affected countries. Sierra Leone fell from 390.0 to 90.5, −299.5 (0.23×); Afghanistan from 350.6 to 53.0, −297.6 (0.15×); Burkina Faso from 343.1 to 74.9, −268.2 (0.22×); and South Sudan from 352.6 to 96.7, −255.9. Afghanistan fell to nearly a seventh of its former rate and “dropped” from 3rd to 26th. In this table, falling in rank is good news.
Other countries fell in rank too: Haiti from 9th to 27th, Côte d’Ivoire from 6th to 18th, Togo from 13th to 23rd, Pakistan from 14th to 24th and Kiribati from 15th to 25th. The only country to climb is Chad, from 12th to 4th. The 2024 leaders are Nigeria at 115.6, Niger 110.7, Somalia 101.1, Chad 97.3 and South Sudan 96.7 — positions that in 1960 were occupied by countries with far higher rates still.
The spread has narrowed sharply as well. In 1960 the gap between the highest at 390.0 and the lowest at 153.5 was 236.50; in 2024 it is 66.80, between 115.6 and 48.8 — less than a third. Note that coverage grows over the series: 18 countries in 1960, 27 in 1981 and 30 from 2003, so the ranks at the left edge are among eighteen. Note finally that birth and death registration is incomplete in many of these countries, so these are estimates rather than measurements.
Trivia quiz
What is the denominator used for the "under-five mortality rate"?
1,000 live births in a given year — the number of children who die before their fifth birthday per 1,000 born. It covers a wider span than the infant mortality rate (under 1 year). (Source)
What kinds of measures drove the large fall in child deaths since the late 20th century?
Vaccines, oral rehydration therapy for diarrhoea, clean water and sanitation, and better nutrition — cheap public-health measures rather than a single cure. (Source)
What is the UN Sustainable Development Goal target for child survival?
SDG 3.2: by 2030, reduce under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births in every country. (Source)
Source
World Bank — Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births) (SH.DYN.MORT)