2026-09-17 · people
One in twenty-five children still die before age five
Global child mortality has plunged — but the remaining burden is not evenly spread.
One in twenty-five children worldwide still dies before their fifth birthday — a 4% share that decades of progress have slashed but not erased. UN IGME's 2024 estimates show child mortality has plunged, yet the remaining burden is not evenly spread: where a child is born still shapes whether they land among the 96% who reach age five or the 4% who do not.
1 cell = 8.2 million people (0.1% of world population) · 1,000 cells
Context
Globally, 96% of children now survive past their fifth birthday, while 4% — one in twenty-five — do not. The figures come from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), whose 2024 estimates round the global under-five mortality rate to about 4%.
Under-five mortality measures the probability that a newborn dies between birth and age five. It has plunged over recent decades, but the remaining burden is not evenly spread: outcomes still vary sharply by country and region.
Country-level estimates are available via CME Info at childmortality.org, the UN's database of child mortality figures.
UN IGME 2024: ~4% under-five mortality globally, rounded.
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