Five million children died last year before their fifth birthday

In October 2022, one-year-old Aisha Mohamed is held by her mother, Isniino Ali, at Garowe General Hospital Stabilisation Centre in Somalia where she was treated for severe acute malnutrition. 

The UN has called for investment in healthcare to reduce preventable tragedies as it reveals that last year an estimated five million children died before their fifth birthday.

UN agencies also found 1.9m babies were stillborn in 2022 with many linked to inequalities in maternal health.

Unicef director of the Division of Data Analytics, Planning, and Monitoring Vidhya Ganesh said: “Every day, far too many parents are facing the trauma of losing their children, sometimes even before their first breath. 

"Such widespread, preventable tragedy should never be accepted as inevitable.

"Progress is possible with stronger political will and targeted investment in equitable access to primary health care for every woman and child.” 

A child or young person under 24 died every 4.4 seconds last year, the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation found in its report Levels & Trends in Child Mortality.

This includes children aged under five, and a further 2.1m children and youths aged between five and 24, the latest estimates show.

Most child deaths occur in the first five years, with half of these within the first month following birth.

The most common cause of death among youngest babies is premature births and complications during birth.

Among slightly older children the biggest threats are infectious diseases including pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malaria.

The group found 1.9m babies were stillborn last year, a separate report, also published on Tuesday, Never Forgotten found.

More than 40% of stillbirths occur during labour.

Preventable deaths

“Tragically, many of these deaths could have been prevented with equitable access and high-quality maternal, newborn, adolescent and child health care,” the agencies said.

Children born in sub-Saharan Africa are 15 times more likely to die than children in Europe and Northern America.

Sub-Saharan Africa had just 29% of global live births but the region accounted for 56% of all under-five deaths in 2021.

Mothers in this region of Africa and South Asia endured 77% of all stillbirths globally last year, the review found:

The risk of a woman having a stillborn baby in sub-Saharan Africa is seven times more likely than in Europe and North America.

The UN also found the pandemic may have increased future risk with vaccination campaigns disrupted and access to nutrition or primary care fractured.

However, the reports also found positive changes in the longer-term linked to investment in primary care since the start of the century.

These include a fall in the global under-five mortality rate by 50% and in the stillbirth rate by 35% in that time.