The pace of reducing child deaths has accelerated sharply since 2000, according to new data released by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and the UN Population Division.
An annual report by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME) shows that in 2011, an estimated 6.9 million children died before their fifth birthday, compared to around 12 million in 1990. Rates of child mortality have fallen in all regions of the world in the last two decades – down by at least 50% in eastern Asia, northern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, south-eastern Asia and western Asia.