Rate of child deaths drops by half since 1990

The rate of child deaths around the world has dropped by more than half since 1990, but not enough to reach the UN goal of a two-thirds reduction by 2015, according to a new report.

New estimates show that deaths of under-5s fell from 12.7m per year in 1990 to 5.9m this year, the first time the figure has gone below 6m.

Despite the decline, 16,000 children under the age of five still die every day, according to the report by the UN children’s agency Unicef, the World Health Organisation, the World Bank Group, and the UN’s Population Division.