Child health: quick facts

• 10.5 million children die each year before they reach the age of five.ⁱ
• Nearly 30,000 children under the age of five die each day.ⁱⁱ
• About 41% of child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and another 34% in south Asia.ⁱⁱⁱ
• Almost two out of three child deaths occur from common, easily preventable or treatable diseases and illnesses such as diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, measles, tetanus and from conditions like malnutrition.^iv
• Low-cost, low-tech interventions could save the lives of as many as six million children under the age of five each year. ^v
• On average, a young child's risk of death in the developing world is 12 times higher than in the developed world.^vi
• Each year, the total number of child deaths (10.5 million)^vii is greater than the total number of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis deaths combined (5.8 million).^viii

Sources

ⁱ WHO. The world health report 2005 - Make Every Mother and Child Count. Geneva: WHO, 2005. www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/sowc05.pdf.
ⁱⁱSave the Children, Issue Brief: January 2004.
ⁱⁱⁱBlack, Robert E, Morris, Saul S, Bryce, Jennifer. “Where and why are 10 million children dying every year?” The Bellagio Series on Child Survival. The Lancet, 365: 2221.
^viUnited Nations Children’s Fund, Facts for Life, UNICEF, New York, 2002.
^vJones, G, Steketee, R.W., Blacke, R. E., Bhutta, Z.A., Morris, S. S., and the Bellagio Child Survival Study Group, “How many child deaths can we prevent this year?” The Lancet. 362:65-71.
^viU.S. Fund for UNICEF, US Coalition for Child Survival Fact Sheet.
^viiInter-Agency Group for Safe Motherhood. The Safe Motherhood Action Agenda: Priorities for the Next Decade; Report on the Safe Motherhood Technical Consultation, 18-23 October 1997. Colombo, Sri Lanka, and New York: Family Care International, 1997.
^viiiThe Global Fund, “HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: The Status and Impact of the Three Diseases.” The Global Fund, 2005.