Countries by Mortality rate, infant, male (per 1,000 live births)
South Sudan ranks first with a male infant mortality rate of 78.3 per 1,000 live births, the highest among 196 countries measured in 2023. At the opposite end, San Marino records 1.5, making the gap between first and last place more than 76 points. This spread underscores the extreme divergence in early survival outcomes for male infants across different parts of the world.
Ranking 2023
Analysis
This metric counts male infant deaths before age one, expressed per 1,000 male live births in a given year. The source definition states: 'Infant mortality rate, male is the number of male infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 male live births in a given year.' The unit is an absolute rate, not a percentage. The ranking covers 196 countries, all with data from 2023, and 100% of data points are classified as official quality. The World Bank indicator code is SP.DYN.IMRT.MA.IN. Viability checks identified 15 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, reflecting the wide range of 1.50 to 78.30 across the dataset.
The ten highest-ranked countries are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. South Sudan leads at 78.3 (Rank 1), followed by Somalia at 73.1 (Rank 2), Niger at 72.1 (Rank 3), Guinea at 68.1 (Rank 4), and the Central African Republic at 66.8 (Rank 5). Nigeria ranks 6th at 65.3 and Chad 7th at 64.4. Pakistan at 54.9 (Rank 12) and Afghanistan at 53.8 (Rank 14) are the only non-African countries in the top 15, placing them alongside Equatorial Guinea at 54.2 (Rank 13) and Cote d'Ivoire at 52.3 (Rank 15). All 15 top-ranked countries exceed 50 deaths per 1,000 male live births.
In the middle of the ranking, Lesotho stands out at Rank 10 with a rate of 60.9, higher than several larger sub-Saharan nations, while Dominica appears at Rank 42 with 35.1 and Kiribati at Rank 27 with 43.7, both small island states placing well above similarly-sized peers. The United States ranks 142nd at 5.9, the same value as Romania and Sri Lanka. Notably, Russia ranks 161st at 4.0, while several smaller European states cluster at the bottom of the ranking. The bottom five are Estonia at 1.8 (Rank 195), San Marino at 1.5 (Rank 196), Japan and Singapore both at 1.9 (Rank 193), and Finland and Slovenia both at 2.0 (Rank 191).
This metric is sex-specific and covers only male infants, so it cannot be used directly to compare overall infant mortality without also consulting female infant mortality data. Reported values depend on the quality of birth and death registration systems in each country, which vary substantially. Countries with weaker civil registration may have rates estimated from survey or modeled data rather than direct counts, which can introduce uncertainty at the country level. The metric does not capture causes of death, gestational factors, or differences in the definition of live birth across countries, all of which can affect comparability.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SP.DYN.IMRT.MA.IN, for the reference year 2023. The metric is defined as follows: 'Infant mortality rate, male is the number of male infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 male live births in a given year.' Values are absolute rates per 1,000 male live births. The ranking covers 196 countries, all with data attributed to 2023, representing 100% recency compliance within a 7-year window. All 196 data points are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. The dataset spans a range of 1.50 to 78.30, a spread of 5,120%, and viability checks flagged 15 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 3.2%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. No microstates below 1 million population were excluded from the 196-country count.