Progress in maternal and child mortality by country, age, and year (Global), 1990-2011

With four years left for countries to achieve international targets for saving the lives of mothers and children, more than half the countries around the world are lowering maternal mortality and child mortality at an accelerated rate. In 125 countries, maternal mortality has declined faster since 2000, the year that countries signed the Millennium Declaration, which included commitments to reduce child and maternal mortality. Progress has been particularly strong in the past five years. Over the same period, in 106 countries, child mortality rates have declined faster between 2000 and 2011 than in the previous decade.

Should current trends continue, 31 developing countries will achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4, which calls for a two-thirds reduction in the child mortality rate between 1990 and 2015, and 13 developing countries will achieve MDG 5, which calls for a three-fourths reduction in the maternal mortality ratio over the same period. Of those countries, nine will achieve both goals: China, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Maldives, Mongolia, Peru, Syria, and Tunisia.

Go to the “How to explore” and “Data stories” tabs for ideas on different ways to use this visualization.

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How to ExploreData StoriesTerms Defined

Hit play and watch changes over time. You can also click on the timeline to start the chart at a specific year.
Click the arrows on the x- and y-axis labels to choose different metrics to display in the visualization.
Select specific countries of interest by either clicking the country name in the menu to the right or clicking directly on a bubble, line, or bar. You can turn “Trails” on or off to see the complete pattern of a country over time.
Choose a specific parameter to watch in the “Size” menu on the right. For example, if you choose “No. maternal deaths,” the bubbles in the visualization will change size according to increases and decreases in the number of maternal deaths in a country.
Click and drag a rectangle within the visualization to zoom in on that area; this may be especially helpful when viewing trends in specific countries.
Next to the x- and y-axis labels, you can click the arrow to change to linear versus logarithmic scale.
You can choose to display the results as a bubble chart, a bar graph, or a line chart by clicking the tabs in the top right corner of the visualization.

Watch as both child and maternal mortality decline. The default visualization shows “Under-5 mortality rate” on the y-axis and “Maternal mortality ratio” on the x-axis. Hit play and see how declining rates accelerate after 2000. Select China and Peru (two countries set to achieve both MDGs 4 and 5 by 2015) and watch their declining rates in both child and maternal mortality. Select Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya to see how mortality rates increased in the 1990s and then started decreasing rapidly around 2000. You may want to zoom in on the graph to see the country trends more closely.
See how the decline in mortality rates among newborns are not keeping pace with the overall declines in under-5 mortality rates. Choose “Under-5 mortality rate” on the y-axis and “Early neonatal mortality rate” on the x-axis. In the “Size” menu, choose “No. early neonatal deaths.” Hit play and watch as under-5 mortality rates in most countries decline faster than early neonatal mortality rates. Also notice how the sizes of the bubbles, which indicate the number of early neonatal deaths in each country, remain relatively constant. Select Mali and Nigeria to see specific examples where this is the case.
Watch the different paces of decline in maternal morality over the past two decades. Choose “No. maternal deaths” on the y-axis and “Maternal mortality ratio” on the x-axis. In the “Size” menu, choose “No. maternal deaths.” Select India and watch as the number and ratio of maternal deaths decrease steadily. Now select Malawi and Botswana and watch as the maternal mortality ratio increases until around 2000, after which both countries see rapid declines in the maternal mortality ratio.

Maternal mortality ratio: maternal deaths per 100,000 live births
Under-5 mortality rate: probability ofdeath between birth and 5 years per 1,000 live births
Child (1-4) mortality rate: probability ofdeath between ages 1 and 4 years per 1,000 live births
Postneonatal mortality rate: probability ofdeath between ages 29 and 364 days per 1,000 live births
Late neonatal mortality rate: probability ofdeath between ages 7 and 28 days per 1,000 live births
Early neonatal mortality rate: probability ofdeath between ages 0 and 6 days per 1,000 live births
No. maternal deaths: number of maternal deaths
No. under-5 deaths: number of deaths in children under 5 years
No. child (1-4) deaths: number of deaths in children ages 1 to 4 years
No. postneonatal deaths: number of deaths in neonates ages 29 to 364 days
No. late neonatal deaths: number of deaths in neonates ages 7 to 28 days
No. early neonatal deaths: number of deaths in neonates ages 0 to 6 days

Progress in maternal and child mortality by country, age, and year (Global), 1990-2011

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