Every 4.4 seconds in 2021, a child or young person died. About 5 million children died before their fifth birthday, and another 2.1 million died between the ages of 5 and 24. Most of those deaths could have been prevented, according to the United Nations report, "Levels and Trends in Child Mortality," released January 10.
What's more heartbreaking than those figures is that a child's chance at survival depends on where they're born. In North America, 6 children per 1,000 die before their fifth birthday. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the rates of deaths of infants and children — the under-5 mortality rates — are 74 per 1,000 and 37 per 1,000, respectively. Those areas together account for 70% of childhood deaths in the world.
