Giving Compass' Take:

• The World Health Organization breaks down the leading causes of death of children around the world. 

• How can funders use this information to direct health efforts? 

• Learn about the maternal and child mortality SDG targets. 

  • An estimated 6.3 million children under the age of 15 years died in 2017. 5.4 million of them were under the age of 5 and 2.5 million of those children died within the first month of life. This translates into 15 000 under-five deaths per day.
  • More than half of these early child deaths are due to conditions that could be prevented or treated with access to simple, affordable interventions.
  • Leading causes of death in children under-5 years are preterm birth complications, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, diarrhea, and malaria.
  • Nearly half of these deaths are in newborns, a figure that will rise as the mortality rate for older infants continues to fall.
  • Children in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 15 times more likely to die before the age of 5 than children in high-income countries.

Substantial global progress has been made in reducing child deaths since 1990. The total number of under-5 deaths worldwide has declined from 12.6 million in 1990 to 5.4 million in 2017 – 15 000 every day compared with 34 000 in 1990. Since 1990, the global under-5 mortality rate has dropped by 58%, from 93 deaths per 1 000 live births in 1990 to 39 in 2017.

Although the world as a whole has been accelerating progress in reducing the under-5 mortality rate, disparities exist in under-5 mortality across regions and countries. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest under-5 mortality rate in the world, with 1 child in 13 dying before his or her fifth birthday, 14 times higher than in high-income countries.  Inequity also persists within countries geographically or by social-economic status. In 2017 alone, some 4.4 million deaths could have been averted had under-5 mortality in each country been as low as in the lowest mortality country in the region; the total number of under-5 deaths would have been reduced to one million.

More than half of under-5 child deaths are due to diseases that are preventable and treatable through simple, affordable interventions. Strengthening health systems to provide such interventions to all children will save many young lives.

Malnourished children, particularly those with severe acute malnutrition, have a higher risk of death from common childhood illness such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45% of deaths in children under-5 years of age.

Read the full article about leading causes of death of children at the World Health Organization.