Worldwide Child Mortality

On September 22, 2007, a team of researchers from the IHME, the University of Queensland, and WHO published new estimates and projections of the under-5 mortality rate (5q0). This publication is available at thelancet.com The goal of this study was to provide rigorous, reproducible estimates and projections of 5q0 using the most up-to-date information available. In pursuit of that goal, this space was established to fulfill three functions: first, to provide public access to the estimates and projections; second, to provide access to the underlying measurements from surveys, censuses and vital registration data used in the analysis; and third, to provide a forum for discussion of possible improvements to the data, methods and interpretation.

Each of the countries listed below is linked to four components.

  • The first of these are tables of measurements and predictions of 5q0, which spans the years 1970-2015.
  • The second component is the data-set used in generating these estimates.
  • A graphical representation of both the raw data and the estimated mortality trend, including uncertainty in model specification, comprises the third component. (For a full explanation of these graphs, please refer to the full published article at thelancet.com.)
  • The final component is a posting mechanism: please feel free to use it! A key component of this work is the inclusion of all available data: if you are aware of any under-5 mortality data which are not included in the tables please leave a post advising us of our omission. If you feel that some historical measurements should be excluded from the analysis or that alternative approaches would be appropriate please comment as well.

The under-5 mortality data presented below was formed by a merging of several public-access data sets. The majority of the data is a merge of data banks publicly available from the World Health Organization and UNICEF. These data are available from http://www.who.int/whosis and http://newsite.unicef.org/childmortality, respectively. All publicly available Demographic and Health Survey data were re-analyzed by IHME in order to generate indirect measurements of under-5 mortality in two-year intervals; these data were then added to the UNICEF and WHO data bases. DHS data is available from http://www.measuredhs.com. Additional individual data sources were also added as they became available.

For those interested in alternative breakdowns of the raw data, a query has also been provided, below.

Data may be downloaded in MS Excel form:
Mortality Data (1.1M)
Estimates and Projections (1.1M)

Charts may be downloaded in PDF* form:
All Country Charts (2M)

Or you may wish to search the data set. To create a custom report, first select the countries in question, then select a start and stop year. All data for all years between your start and stop year will be included.


*Software capable of displaying a PDF is required for viewing or printing this document. You may download a free copy of Adobe Reader from the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

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