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Maternal deaths by country (Global), 1980-2008

Most countries see significant reductions in maternal mortality

Visualize country-level changes from 1980 to 2008 in the number of maternal deaths using the tool below. You can see global trends or view trends by region. By putting your cursor over a band of color at any point on the graph, you will see the name of the country and the number of deaths that year.
 
The estimates on maternal mortality are from research published in The Lancet in May 2010. 
 
For more ideas how to explore go to the How to Visualize tab and the Data Stories tab. 
 

Data Visualization

How to ExploreData StoriesTerms Defined
  • Hit play and watch changes over time.
  • Next to the x-axis and y-axis labels, you can click the arrow to choose different indicators to display in the graph.
  • Select specific countries to watch.
  • Click and drag a rectangle within the graph plot to zoom in to that area; this may be especially helpful when trying to look at specific country trends.
  • To change the scale to log instead of linear, click the arrow next to the "Lin" text on each axis and select "Log."
  • Change the graph from a bubble view to a column or line chart view using the tab in the top right corner of the visualization.
  • About half of all maternal deaths are concentrated in only six countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was formerly known as Zaire. Choose “All” on the drop down menu, and you will see how these six countries have consistently seen among the highest number of maternal deaths in the world, but some countries have shown marked improvements. For example, Pakistan has remained fairly consistent at more than 20,000 maternal deaths every year since 1980. India, however, has driven the number of maternal deaths down from more than 166,000 in 1980 to fewer than 69,000 in 2008, a 59% reduction.
 
  • The only region in the world that has seen an overall upward trend in maternal deaths is the North America High Income region. Click on this region to see how the United States climbed from 426 deaths in 1980 to 732 in 2008. IHME researchers note that some of the trend may be due to better reporting of maternal deaths.
 
  • MMR: Maternal mortality ratio (number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births)
  • GDP: Gross domestic product per capita
  • Total fertility rate: Average number of children that a woman would have over her lifetime, if exposed to current age-specific fertility rates
  • Skilled birth attendance: Fraction of births attended by a doctor, nurse, or midwife

Related Visualizations & other Tools

Data Visulizations
Maternal mortality in relation to GDP, education, neonatal mortality, skilled birth attendance, and total fertility rate by country and mapped over time (Global), 1980-2008

Examine data for maternal mortality over time.

Interact with the tool

Related Publications & Presentations

Research Articles

Hogan MC, Foreman KJ, Naghavi M, Ahn SY, Wang M, Makela SM, Lopez AD, Lozano R, Murray CJL. Maternal mortality for 181 countries, 1980-2008: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5. The Lancet. 2010 May 8; 375:1609–1623. Published online first April 12, 2010.

Read the Article
View the Publication Summary and Data

Related News & Events

News Releases
Maternal deaths fall worldwide from a half-million annually to less than 350,000
April 12, 2010

The number of women dying from pregnancy-related causes has dropped by more than 35% in the past 30 years – from more than a half-million deaths annually in 1980 to about 343,000 in 2008, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and collaborators at the University of Queensland.

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