Roughly 13,300 children under the age of 5 die every day worldwide. That figure comes from 2024 estimates, when 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday, including 2.3 million newborns. The vast majority of these deaths are preventable with existing, low-cost health interventions.
Where the Numbers Come From
UNICEF and the World Health Organization track child mortality through an interagency group that compiles birth and death records, household surveys, and census data from countries around the world. Their most recent report, covering 2024 data, puts the daily toll at approximately 13,300 children under five. An additional 2.1 million older children, adolescents, and youth also died that year, but the under-5 age group accounts for the bulk of child deaths globally and receives the most attention because so many of these deaths respond to basic medical care.
Newborns Face the Greatest Risk
Nearly half of all under-5 deaths happen in the first 28 days of life. About 6,500 newborns die every day, making the neonatal period by far the most dangerous stretch of childhood. Most of these deaths result from complications during birth, premature delivery, or infections picked up in the first hours and days. Many could be prevented with skilled birth attendants, clean delivery environments, and immediate postnatal care like warming, feeding support, and basic antibiotics when needed.
What Children Die From
The leading killers of children under 5 are infectious diseases, birth complications, and congenital conditions. Pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria together account for a large share of deaths, particularly in regions with limited access to clean water, vaccines, and primary healthcare. Complications from preterm birth, oxygen deprivation during delivery, and birth defects round out the top causes.
Undernutrition plays a role in nearly half of all under-5 deaths. A malnourished child’s immune system is weaker, which means common illnesses like diarrhea or pneumonia that a well-nourished child would survive can become fatal. This is why child mortality is so tightly linked to poverty: hunger doesn’t always kill directly, but it makes everything else more dangerous.
Most Deaths Happen in Two Regions
About 85 percent of all under-5 deaths in 2024 occurred in just two parts of the world: Sub-Saharan Africa (60 percent) and South Asia (25 percent). Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest under-5 mortality rate on the planet, at roughly 71 deaths per 1,000 live births. That means 1 in 14 children born in the region dies before turning 5.
To put that in perspective, a child born in Sub-Saharan Africa is 19 times more likely to die before age 5 than a child born in Western Europe. The region’s 2024 mortality rate is comparable to where the global average stood back in 2003, effectively placing it more than 20 years behind the rest of the world. The gap reflects chronic shortages of healthcare workers, hospitals, vaccines, clean water, and nutrition programs in the most affected countries.
Progress Has Been Real but Is Slowing
The world has made enormous progress on child survival over the past few decades. In 1990, more than 12 million children under 5 died each year. By 2024, that number had dropped to 4.9 million, a reduction of nearly 60 percent. Expanded vaccination, oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea, insecticide-treated bed nets for malaria, and better access to skilled birth attendants all contributed.
But the pace of improvement is slowing. The latest data show that declines in child mortality have lost momentum, particularly in the poorest countries. Conflict, climate-related food crises, and disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic all set back gains. The global goal is to bring under-5 mortality below 25 deaths per 1,000 live births in every country by 2030. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia are not on track to meet that target.
Why So Many Deaths Are Preventable
What makes these numbers especially striking is how treatable the causes are. Diarrhea can be managed with oral rehydration salts and zinc, a treatment that costs pennies. Pneumonia responds to basic antibiotics. Malaria is preventable with bed nets and treatable with widely available medications. Vaccines exist for measles, rotavirus, and other childhood killers. Clean water and adequate nutrition prevent many of these illnesses from becoming severe in the first place.
The barrier is access, not technology. Children die in the highest numbers where health systems are weakest, where families live far from clinics, where conflict disrupts supply chains, and where poverty limits what parents can do even when they recognize their child is sick. Closing these gaps is not a matter of inventing new solutions. It is a matter of delivering existing ones to the children who need them most.