Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/under-five-mortality-rate-dropping-reports-unicef-3408.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Under-five mortality rate dropping, reports UNICEF | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Under-five mortality rate dropping, reports UNICEF


India accounts for 21 % of such deaths

Even as the number of deaths among children under the age of five globally has fallen from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009, India accounts for 21 per cent of such deaths.

According to the latest report titled ‘Levels and Trends in Child Mortality,' launched by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the global under-five mortality rate has dropped by a third over that period, from 89 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 60 in 2009.

The good news is that these estimates suggest that 12,000 fewer children are dying each day around the world compared to 1990.

However, the tragedy of preventable child deaths continues. Some 22,000 children under the age of five still die each day, with some 70 per cent of these deaths occurring in the first year of the child's life.

Under-five mortality is increasingly concentrated in a few countries. About half of global under-five deaths occurred in just five countries in 2009 — India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and China.

India, with 21 per cent, and Nigeria, with 10 per cent, together account for nearly a third of under-five deaths worldwide.

The highest rates of child mortality continue to be found in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in eight children dies before their fifth birthday — nearly 20 times the average for developed regions (one in 167).

Southern Asia has the second highest rates, with about one in 14 children dying before the age of five.

While the speed at which under-five mortality rates are declining improved for the period of 2000-09 compared to the previous decade, the deaths are still not decreasing fast enough — especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and Oceania — to achieve the Millennium Development Goal-4 target (of a two-thirds decline between 1990 and 2015), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and Oceania.