Facts on Children’s health: The UNICEF-report – The State of the World’s Children 2016: A Fair Chance for Every Child

Annually UNICEF presents a report with data on health, nutritional and educational status as well as the social situation of children worldwide. The child mortality rate among five-year-olds is regarded as the most important indicator of the country’s comparability of living conditions for children.

5.9 million deaths among children under five years have been registered worldwide in 2015, with about one million children surviving less than one day. Angola with 15.7 per cent, Chad with 13.9 per cent and Somalia with 13.7 per cent belonge to the three countries with the highest rate of child mortality before the fifth year of life. The Ivory Coast ranked 13th in the scale, together with Guinea-Bissau and South Sudan, with a share of 9.3 per cent.

Poverty and poverty-related malnutrition is a major cause of high child mortality. Compared to the richest children in one country, the poorest died an average of 1.9 times more before the fifth birthday, and were 2.1 times more often affected by dietary deficiencies. The gap in child mortality between rich industrialized countries and the poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia has hardly changed since 1990.

UNICEF estimates that without any countermeasures around 69 million children will die from preventable diseases by 2030, around 167 Million children will be living in poverty and around 750 million girls will be married as children.

Read and see more:
UNICEF 2016. The State of the World’s Children 2016: A fair chance for every child. https://www.unicef.org/publications/index_91711.html and https://data.unicef.org/