posts: 26748

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26748 Global child mortality: it is hard to overestimate both the immensity of the tragedy, and the progress the world has made (i) untitled-reusable-block-65 wp_block publish <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Disastrous events with high death tolls always make the headlines, and rightfully so. Yet there are many daily, recurring tragedies in the world which create as much or more suffering and often go unnoticed.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/">Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)</a>&nbsp;estimates that in&nbsp;1990&nbsp;more than&nbsp;12 million children died. Most of these deaths were preventable, and arose from <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality/#child-mortality-by-cause-of-death">illness and poverty</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Let's put this in perspective. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents">Aviation disasters</a> are a form of tragedy that is both relatively uncommon and widely reported. A Boeing 747&nbsp;can carry up to 620 people.{ref}The exact number of seats <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747">depends</a> on the seating configuration and while 524 seats are typical, 620 is on the high end.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p> The&nbsp;total number of child deaths in 1990 is equivalent to 53&nbsp;massive aircraft disasters every day, involving primarily children, with no survivors.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>While every plane crash makes the headlines and 53 of them in a single day would have media coverage everywhere, we&nbsp;see proportionally less reporting about the more prevalent causes of mortality. By considering how the unseen, daily cruelty&nbsp;of child death compares to discrete tragic events, we can find a sense of perspective about the scale involved.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Here at <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/">OurWorldInData.org</a> we present the empirical evidence of global development. To understand these issues and see the progress involved, we need to have a look at long-term changes over the course of history.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>A ten-fold decrease in child mortality</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The chart shows the share of&nbsp;children&nbsp;surviving the first five years of their lives. It goes back to the year 1800. Health conditions in the time of our ancestors were such that more than 4 out of 10 newborns died before their fifth&nbsp;birthday.&nbsp;The historical estimates further suggest that it was the entire world that lived in poor conditions: there was relatively little variation between world regions, and even in the best-off countries of 1800 every third child perished.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;" src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-child-mortality-timeseries" width="300" height="150"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Children regularly dying was a reality for all families for a very long time. For millennia our ancestors lived in poor health and most <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality/#child-mortality-in-pre-modern-cultures">had short lives</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The chart shows that this finally began to improve in the 20th century, as humanity achieved broad improvements in health and living conditions. In the first half of the 1900s, the global child mortality rate fell by more than half and yet was still high: every fifth child born in 1960 died before 1965. Fortunately, in recent decades – in our lifetimes – we have seen rapid progress. In 2015 global child mortality&nbsp;fell to 4.3% – 10-fold lower than two centuries ago.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One reason we do not see this progress is that we are unaware of how much worse the past was.&nbsp;A long-term perspective is crucial.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> 
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 Disastrous events with high death tolls always make the headlines, and rightfully so. Yet there are many daily, recurring tragedies in the world which create as much or more suffering and often go unnoticed. The [Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)](http://www.healthdata.org/) estimates that in 1990 more than 12 million children died. Most of these deaths were preventable, and arose from [illness and poverty](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality/#child-mortality-by-cause-of-death). Let's put this in perspective. [Aviation disasters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents) are a form of tragedy that is both relatively uncommon and widely reported. A Boeing 747 can carry up to 620 people.{ref}The exact number of seats [depends](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747) on the seating configuration and while 524 seats are typical, 620 is on the high end.{/ref} The total number of child deaths in 1990 is equivalent to 53 massive aircraft disasters every day, involving primarily children, with no survivors. While every plane crash makes the headlines and 53 of them in a single day would have media coverage everywhere, we see proportionally less reporting about the more prevalent causes of mortality. By considering how the unseen, daily cruelty of child death compares to discrete tragic events, we can find a sense of perspective about the scale involved. Here at [OurWorldInData.org](https://ourworldindata.org/) we present the empirical evidence of global development. To understand these issues and see the progress involved, we need to have a look at long-term changes over the course of history. ## A ten-fold decrease in child mortality The chart shows the share of children surviving the first five years of their lives. It goes back to the year 1800. Health conditions in the time of our ancestors were such that more than 4 out of 10 newborns died before their fifth birthday. The historical estimates further suggest that it was the entire world that lived in poor conditions: there was relatively little variation between world regions, and even in the best-off countries of 1800 every third child perished. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-child-mortality-timeseries"/> Children regularly dying was a reality for all families for a very long time. For millennia our ancestors lived in poor health and most [had short lives](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality/#child-mortality-in-pre-modern-cultures). The chart shows that this finally began to improve in the 20th century, as humanity achieved broad improvements in health and living conditions. In the first half of the 1900s, the global child mortality rate fell by more than half and yet was still high: every fifth child born in 1960 died before 1965. Fortunately, in recent decades – in our lifetimes – we have seen rapid progress. In 2015 global child mortality fell to 4.3% – 10-fold lower than two centuries ago. One reason we do not see this progress is that we are unaware of how much worse the past was. A long-term perspective is crucial. 
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