The number of children globally who died before their fifth birthday dropped to a record low of 4.9 million in 2022, but that still represents one death every six seconds, according to new United Nations estimates.
While the mortality rate for under-5s has roughly halved since 2000, the world is still behind in the goal of reducing preventable deaths in that age group by 2030, and progress has slowed since 2015, the report, released on Wednesday, found.
The picture is varied. Some countries, like Cambodia, Malawi, and Mongolia, have reduced under-5 mortality rates by more than 75% since 2000. The UN partners added that the report was limited by a lack of data in the worst-affected countries.