Striking improvements in infant mortality

Unicef’s latest annual report on The state of the world’s children (PDF) reveals enormous improvements in infant mortality. Evidently the number of deaths of children under five fell from about 20m in 1960 – the earliest year for which such figures are available – to under 10m in 2006. This despite a large increase in total population over the period. Between 1990 and 2006 infant mortality fell by 23% to 93 deaths per 1,000 live births to 72.

Clearly the figures could and should fall much further still. But it would be wrong to underplay what has already been achieved.