Published 2026-07-20 · data 2023 · estimated deaths in 2023

Malaria still kills mostly children in Africa

Bed nets and drugs worked — yet hundreds of thousands of deaths remain each year.

Malaria killed an estimated 600,000 people in 2023 — and 95% of those deaths were in Africa, most of them children. Bed nets, medicines and, increasingly, vaccines have driven decades of progress, yet hundreds of thousands still die each year, overwhelmingly on one continent.

1 cell = 600 estimated deaths in 2023 (0.1% of global malaria deaths) · 1,000 cells

Context

Africa accounted for 95% of the estimated 600,000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2023, with the remaining 5% spread across the rest of the world, per the regional breakdown in WHO's World Malaria Report. Outside sub-Saharan Africa, the parasite P. vivax drives much of the burden.

The tools that work are spreading: malaria vaccines reached children in 17 endemic countries in 2024, and WHO says new evidence confirms the shots save children's lives. It has also prequalified the first malaria treatment designed for newborns and infants.

WHO's Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 guides the global response, but the agency warns that ever-increasing financial constraints are forcing hard choices about which interventions to prioritize in resource-constrained countries.

WHO World Malaria Report regional shares.