Key points from the dashboard
- The dashboard tracks the under five mortality rate from 1990 to 2020 by region, against the UN target of fewer than 25 deaths per 1,000 live births (Sustainable Development Goal 3.2).
- Its subtitle says children are surviving more than ever, and every regional panel shows rates falling over the 30 years.
- Europe has almost every country below the target throughout, while most African countries remain above it in 2020.
- A scatter chart for 2020 shows richer countries with lower child mortality.
- All of this is from the graphic, which cites Our World in Data.
The child mortality dashboard in text
Title: Declining Child Mortality Rates. Filter, top right: Current Year 2020. Subtitle: “Children are survivng more than ever. In this visualization we look at progress over the past thirty years (1990-2020) towards reducing Child Mortality Rates for children under 5. How much progress is made and has yet to be made towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of reducing mortality rates to fewer than 25 deaths per 1,000 live births.”
| Panel | What it shows | Axes and labels |
|---|---|---|
| Mortality Rates Under 5 by Region (top left) | One dot per country per year in four columns, Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe. Dots above a green target line are red, dots below it are light blue. | Y axis: Under-five mortality rate, log scale, 0.2 to 20. X axis: 1991 to 2018 in each column. |
| GDP vs Mortality Rate (top right) | One bubble per country for the current year, coloured by region (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania), with a green vertical target line. | Y axis: GDP per capita, log scale, 500 to 100,000, with richer countries lower down. X axis: Under-five mortality rate, 10 to 0.2, falling to the right. |
| Progress towards SDG 3.2 (25 per 1000) (bottom left) | One line per region showing the share of its countries that meet the target each year. | Y axis: SDG, 0.00% to 100.00%. X axis: 1990 to 2020. |
| Countries meeting SDG 3.2 (bottom right) | Packed bubbles, one per country, in a grid of four regions by four years (1990, 2000, 2010, 2020). Dark bubbles appear to mark countries meeting the target and light bubbles those that do not. | Columns: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe. Rows: 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020. No colour legend. |
Approximate readings from the Progress towards SDG 3.2 lines (the chart prints no data labels, so these are our readings from the gridlines): Europe rises from about 88% of countries meeting the target in 1990 to 100% from the early 2000s; the Americas from about 44% to about 87%; Asia from about 25% to about 69%; Oceania from about 31% to about 62%; Africa from about 2% to about 16%.
Footer: Source: Our World in Data. Author: David Chung. Notes: “Excluded are countries with no reported child mortality rates. Oceania has been excluded for lack of data. Though, many countries in the region continue to report high levels of Child Mortality Rates for Children under 5.”
Child mortality rate over time
The World Health Organization reports that the global under five mortality rate has fallen by about 60% since 1990, to 37.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024, less than half its level in 2000 [2]. An estimated 4.9 million children under five died in 2024 [2]. Most of the progress came before 2015: between 2015 and 2024 the annual rate of reduction fell by more than half compared with 2000 to 2015, and the number of deaths has stayed at roughly 4.8 to 4.9 million a year since 2022 [2].
Over a longer span, Our World in Data notes that until at least 1800 more than a third of children died before the age of five. By 1950 child mortality in the richest countries had fallen below 5%, while one in three children or more still died in much of Africa, Asia and South America [4].
The SDG 3.2 target and where progress lags
Target 3.2 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals aims, by 2030, to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five, with all countries aiming to reduce under five mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births [3]. The dashboard’s green line marks that threshold.
The regional gap on the dashboard matches the WHO figures. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for more than 80% of under five deaths in 2024 [2]. Children born in sub-Saharan Africa face an under five mortality rate of 71.6 per 1,000, nearly 14 times higher than in Europe and Northern America [2]. Only three countries, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia, had rates above 100 per 1,000 in 2024, down from 41 countries in 2000 [2]. WHO lists the leading causes of death under five as preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia or trauma, pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, which it describes as largely preventable or treatable [2].
Notes on this infographic
- Units. The axes run from 0.2 to 20, which reads as a percentage of children dying before five. The target of 25 per 1,000 is 2.5% on that scale, where the green lines sit.
- Oceania. The note says Oceania was excluded, but it still appears in the GDP chart legend and as a line in the progress chart. It is missing only from the dot panel and the bubble grid.
- Spelling. The subtitle prints “survivng” for surviving. We have kept it as printed.
- Data date. The data ends in 2020. WHO figures for 2024 are given above.
- Interactive original. The image is a screenshot of an interactive Tableau dashboard set to the year 2020.
Questions about child mortality rates
When did child mortality decrease?
It has fallen over two centuries. Our World in Data shows rich countries below 5% by 1950 [4], and WHO reports a fall of about 60% in the global rate since 1990, with most of that progress before 2015 [2].
What is the children’s mortality rate?
Globally, 37.4 deaths per 1,000 live births for children under five in 2024, according to WHO [2]. The SDG target is 25 per 1,000 or lower in every country by 2030 [3].
Which region has the highest child mortality rate?
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest, with an under five mortality rate of 71.6 per 1,000, nearly 14 times higher than in Europe and Northern America [2]. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for more than 80% of under five deaths in 2024 [2]. Only three countries, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia, had rates above 100 per 1,000 in 2024, down from 41 countries in 2000 [2].
What share of countries meet the SDG child mortality target?
By 2020, 100% of European countries met the SDG 3.2 target of fewer than 25 deaths per 1,000 live births, against about 16% in Africa, based on readings of the dashboard's progress lines. The Americas rose from about 44% in 1990 to about 87%, Asia from about 25% to about 69% and Oceania from about 31% to about 62%. The chart prints no data labels, so these figures are approximate.
Sources
- David Chung, Child Mortality, Tableau Public, first published 12 September 2024. The creator’s dashboard.
- World Health Organization, Child mortality (under 5 years), fact sheet, 1 May 2026.
- United Nations, Sustainable Development Goal 3, target 3.2.
- Hannah Ritchie, Our World in Data, How child mortality has declined in the last two centuries.
Last reviewed 30 October 2026
