Declining mortality

A study in the Lancet, a British medical journal, shows that worldwide mortality of children under five has fallen significantly since 1970. The bad news is that many countries are unlikely to meet the relatively modest Millenium Development Goal (MDG) target of a two thirds reduction in mortality between 1990 and 2015.

According to the report:

“Our analysis of 16 174 measurements of child mortality in 187 countries shows that the number of deaths in children younger than 5 years dropped from 16 million in 1970 to 7·7 million in 2010. In developing countries, mortality in children younger than 5 years declined by 35% from 1990 to 2010, a yearly rate of 2·1%. This rate of decline is lower than the MDG 4 target of 4·4% per year but represents substantial progress across countries; no countries have a rate of under-5 mortality of more than 200 per 1000 in 2010 whereas 12 did in 1990. Although progress has been slowest in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, there is clear evidence of accelerating rates of decline in under-5 mortality in all regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Rates of under-5 mortality in 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are now declining at more than 2% per year; in 34 countries in this region, the rate of decline has increased in the period 2000—10 compared with 1990—2000.”