Child Mortality

Child mortality, also known as child death, refers to the death of children under a particular age. Substantial reductions in child mortality have [Page 234]occurred in the last two centuries. However, according to the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, 5.6 million children younger than 5 years old still die every year, mostly from preventable diseases. In major Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation countries, the under-five mortality rate has declined from, in many cases, more than 300 to less than 10 per 1,000 live births in the last 200 years. This trend has accelerated in recent years. In the last half of the 20th century, many developing countries achieved this level of decline in a much shorter period. Such a dramatic decline ...