New estimates released by United Nations agencies show that approximately 4.9 million children under the age of five died in 2024, a figure that underscores a slowdown in the global reduction of child mortality even before significant aid cuts by major donors later in the year.
The estimate, produced jointly by UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. population division, attributes most of these deaths to conditions that are preventable with broader access to health services and relatively inexpensive interventions. The agencies cite complications from pre-term birth and illnesses such as malaria as examples of causes that can often be averted or treated when basic care is available.
Child mortality has fallen by more than half since 2000, the agencies noted, but progress has decelerated since about 2015. The report records 4.9 million deaths in 2022, then a record-low, and 4.8 million in 2023. The 2024 number may appear higher than 2023, but the agencies caution that methodological differences in the calculations between years prevent direct comparison.
"However... we do see a global slowdown in mortality reduction," a WHO spokesperson said, adding that conflict, economic instability, climate change and weak health systems are among the forces contributing to stalled progress. "Together, these pressures risk undermining past achievements and could lead to stagnation - or even reversal - in hard-won child survival gains if not addressed," the spokesperson added.
The data covered by the report pertains to 2024, before the United States and other major donors, including the United Kingdom and Germany, began reducing their international aid budgets. A subsequent analysis cited in the article, from the Gates Foundation, reported that global development assistance for health fell by just under 27% in 2025 compared with 2024. The foundation warned at the end of 2025 that these cuts were contributing to backsliding in child mortality progress based on its estimates.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell emphasized the preventable nature of many child deaths. "No child should die from diseases that we know how to prevent. But we see worrying signs that progress in child survival is slowing - and at a time where we're seeing further global budget cuts," she said.
The agencies also cautioned that reductions in aid could impair countries' ability to monitor trends because of weakened data collection systems. The report draws on U.N. data and estimates from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to generate its figures.
While the broad downward trend in under-five mortality since 2000 remains a significant public health achievement, the report's authors and quoted officials signal that a combination of reduced funding and pressures on health systems could impede future advances and complicate efforts to track and respond to child health needs.
Key findings summarized in the report include the persistence of largely preventable causes of death among young children, a notable slowdown in the pace of mortality reduction since 2015, and concerns that recent reductions in international health aid may exacerbate those trends and damage data collection capacity.