Inequality in global child deaths

Many countries have improved the child survival rates at the national level in the past decades, but large variation remains in local progress. To inform efforts to reduce preventable child deaths by 2030, as per United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2, Simon Hay and colleagues used a geostatistical model to create high-resolution maps of mortality rates and number of deaths of children under five years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2017. These maps reveal that in some countries, significant geographical inequality still exists in the amount of progress towards reducing child death by 2030. By identifying regions of high mortality, exemplars of progress and geographical inequalities, the authors hope to ultimately inform better-targeted interventions and public health investments.