In these nine countries with the worst child mortality rates, about one in ten children dies before turning five

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December 6, 2025 at 12:00 AM
In these nine countries with the worst child mortality rates, about one in ten children dies before turning five

Despite the world’s immense progress against child mortality, in some of the poorest countries, one in ten children still dies. That’s a level last seen in the richest countries in the middle of the 20th century.The chart shows the nine countries, all located in Africa, where this is the reality today. In Niger, more than 11 out of every 100 children die before the age of five. In the European Union, the child mortality rate is more than twenty times lower.To learn more, read my colleague Max’s article: “Child mortality: an everyday tragedy of enormous scale that we can make progress against”.

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