5 million children died before turning 5 in 2021: UN

In 2021, 5 million children died before reaching their 5th birthday, according to UN data published on Tuesday.

The latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) also found that 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5–24 years lost their lives during that same period, corresponding to a child or youth dying every 4.4 seconds.

A separate UN IGME report also released on Tuesday found that 1.9 million babies were stillborn in 2021. Many of the deaths would have been avoidable with better health care, the report said.

“Such widespread, preventable tragedy should never be accepted as inevitable,” said Vidhya Ganesh of the UN children’s fund UNICEF. “Progress is possible with stronger political will and targeted investment in equitable access to primary health care for every woman and child.”

While things improved since 2000 – with the global under-five mortality rate falling by 50%, mortality rates in older children and youth dropping by 36% and the stillbirth rate decreasing by 35% – “gains have reduced significantly since 2010,” the UN said in a statement.

The UN IGME warned that nearly 59 million children and youth will die before 2030 if “swift action is not taken to improve health services.”

The reports also showed that, despite having just 29% of global live births, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 56% of all under-five deaths in 2021, with children born in the region subject to the highest risk of childhood death in the world.

Anshu Banerjee of the World Health Organization (WHO) called the impact of a child’s place of birth on their chances of survival “grossly unjust.”

“Only by improving access to quality health care, especially around the time of childbirth, will we be able to reduce these inequities and end preventable deaths of newborns and children worldwide,” said John Wilmoth, Director of UN DESA Population Division.