Today's Edition
ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
Around 7 million children, adolescents and young people died in 2024, with most deaths linked to preventable or treatable causes, according to a United Nations report published on Tuesday.
Of those deaths, 4.9 million were children under the age of five - equivalent to one child dying every six seconds - while another 2.1 million occurred among those aged 5 to 24.
In its latest “Levels & Trends in Child Mortality 2025” report, the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) said that global under-5 mortality has fallen by 60% since 1990, while neonatal mortality rate has declined by 45%.
Despite decades of improvement, global progress in reducing child mortality has slowed in recent years. The annual rate of reduction dropped from 3.9% between 2000 and 2015 to 1.5% in the years that followed, leaving millions of children exposed to risks that are largely avoidable.
“If current trends continue, an estimated 27.3 million children are projected to die before their fifth birthday between 2025 and 2030, with almost 13 million of those deaths occurring in the neonatal period,” UN IGME warned.
Newborn deaths now account for a disproportionate share of overall child mortality, with conditions linked to prematurity, birth asphyxia and congenital anomalies responsible for more than a third of under-5 deaths globally.
Many of the 2.3 million newborn deaths occurred in the first month of life, when timely care is often the difference between survival and loss.
For children who survive beyond the neonatal period, infectious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria remain a leading threat, often exacerbated by malnutrition and limited access to treatment. Among adolescents, the leading causes of death include road traffic injuries, malaria and cancer.
The burden of these deaths remains “heavily concentrated” in the world’s poorest regions, the report said. Nearly 80% of all mortality among people under 25 occurs in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, with sub-Saharan Africa alone accounting for 54% of the global total in 2024.
UN IGME analysis also showed that a child born in the highest-mortality region faces a risk of dying before age 5 up to 19 times higher than a child born in the lowest-mortality region.
Countries classified as fragile or conflict-affected, meanwhile, account for about half of all under-5 deaths, despite representing a much smaller share of the global population.
Looking ahead, the report warns that many countries are off track to meet global targets on child survival. Sixty countries are at risk of missing the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target for under-five mortality, while 66 may fail to meet neonatal mortality targets.
However, UN IGME also pointed out that millions of lives could still be saved with proven, cost-effective interventions - including improved access to healthcare, nutrition, immunisation and clean water - but says stronger investment and targeted action are needed to reach the most vulnerable populations.
“If all countries were to achieve the SDG targets for under-5 and neonatal mortality, 8.2 million deaths could be averted by 2030 compared with the current trends scenario.”
