Published: 27 March 2025

WHO Press Relases, 25 March 2025

In 2023, global child mortality before age five fell to 4.8 million, while stillbirths remained at 1.9 million, according to the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME). Since 2000, child deaths have dropped by over 50% and stillbirths by a third, largely due to investments in vaccines, nutrition, and sanitation. However, progress has slowed, and preventable deaths remain high.

Quoted in a press release issued by the WHO on 25 March 2025, UNICEF’s Executive Director, Catherine Russell, warned that reduced funding could reverse these gains, leading to more deaths from treatable conditions. Major donors have cut aid, affecting healthcare workers, clinics, and essential supplies. Humanitarian crisis regions and high-mortality countries face the worst impacts, with disruptions to vaccination programmes and malaria treatment.

The rate of decline in child mortality slowed by 42% since 2015, and stillbirth reduction dropped by 53%. Nearly half of under-five deaths occur in the first month, mainly due to premature birth and labour complications. Beyond the newborn stage, pneumonia, malaria, and diarrhoea remain leading killers.

Disparities in survival rates persist. A child in sub-Saharan Africa is 18 times more likely to die before age five than one in Australia or New Zealand. Stillbirth rates are also highest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where women are six to eight times more likely to experience stillbirths than those in high-income regions.

UN IGME urged increased investment, service integration, and innovation to scale up life-saving interventions. The World Bank’s Juan Pablo Uribe emphasised that investing in children’s health boosts economic growth and social equity.


Without urgent action, millions of children remain at risk.