WASHINGTON — More of the world’s children are surviving to their fifth birthday, but 6.3 million still died last year, mostly from preventable causes, the U.N. children’s agency said Tuesday.
That’s nearly 17,000 young children dying every day. And while death rates have been cut in half since 1990, the world still is short of meeting a goal of a two-thirds decrease in child mortality by next year, the report by the United Nations Children’s Fund said.
“We’re building momentum in many countries in the poorest parts of the world,” said Dr. Mickey Chopra, UNICEF’s head of global programs. The challenge is to spread what works.
India and Nigeria together accounted for more than a third of all the deaths, with their large populations. The world’s highest rate of child mortality was in Angola, with 167 deaths for every 1,000 live births. By region, the greatest burden is in sub-Saharan Africa, with a rate of 92 deaths for every 1,000 live births.