NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Global mortality rates for children under five have fallen by more than half since 1990, when the Millennium Development Goals for addressing effects of poverty were established, a U.N. interagency group reported Wednesday.

Despite the huge success, the group's report said most countries still missed the MDG target of reducing child mortality by two-thirds.

In 1990, 12.7 million children under five died from largely preventable diseases. The U.N. said that fewer than 6 million children die yearly now, or 16,000 per day. While this is significant progress, health agencies said much more needs to be done to save lives.

The report noted that children are most at risk during the first month of life, when 45 percent of all under-5 deaths happen.  It said 1 million infants die the day they are born, and nearly 2 million die in the first week of life.