Countries by Mortality rate, under-5, female (per 1,000 live births)
Niger ranks first with a female under-5 mortality rate of 110.7 per 1,000 live births, while San Marino records the lowest value at 1.3. The gap of 109.4 points between the top and bottom of this 196-country ranking reflects the extreme variation in child survival conditions across the world.
Ranking 2023
Analysis
This metric tracks the probability that a newborn female will die before reaching age five, expressed per 1,000 live births. The World Bank defines it as follows: under-five mortality rate, female is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn female baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to female age-specific mortality rates of the specified year. Higher values indicate worse outcomes; the ranking is ordered from highest to lowest mortality. Data cover 196 countries for the reference year 2023, with 100% of data points classified as official and all 196 countries reporting data from within the last seven years. The range spans from 1.3 to 110.7, a spread of over 8,400%, and the dataset contains 31 extreme outliers at the three-standard-deviation threshold.
The ten countries with the highest female under-5 mortality rates are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. Niger leads at 110.7, followed by Nigeria at 99.5, Somalia at 98.1, Chad at 94.8, and South Sudan at 93.4. Sierra Leone (88.4), Guinea (87.7), Mali (86.1), the Central African Republic (86.0), and Burkina Faso (72.7) round out the top ten. All ten are in West or Central Africa, with the exception of Somalia and South Sudan in the east. These countries share the highest values in the dataset, each far exceeding the global median.
The middle of the ranking shows considerable diversity. Pakistan (rank 21, 53.8) and Afghanistan (rank 24, 51.6) are the only non-African countries in the top 25. Kiribati at rank 25 (50.5) and Haiti at rank 26 (49.8) are notable inclusions outside sub-Saharan Africa. In the lower-middle range, countries such as Brazil (rank 102, 12.8), China (rank 143, 5.9), and the United States (rank 143, 5.9) sit alongside each other at similar values. The United States, at 5.9, shares rank 143 with Uruguay and China, placing it well below most other high-income nations in this ranking.
Several limitations apply to this metric. The indicator is modeled and may not reflect direct civil registration data for all countries, particularly those with weak vital statistics systems. Countries at the high end of the ranking, where mortality is most acute, are also those where data collection is most challenging, which may introduce uncertainty into precise values. The metric covers only female under-5 mortality and does not capture male rates or the ratio between them. It also does not reflect within-country variation, masking regional disparities. The 31 extreme outliers flagged at the three-standard-deviation threshold indicate that a subset of country values diverge substantially from the central distribution.
Methodology
This ranking uses World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SH.DYN.MORT.FE, for the reference year 2023. The metric is defined verbatim as: under-five mortality rate, female is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn female baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to female age-specific mortality rates of the specified year. The unit is an absolute probability value per 1,000 live births. The dataset covers 196 countries, all of which report data from within the last seven years, yielding 100% recency coverage. All 196 data points are classified as official quality. The value range is 1.30 to 110.70, a spread of 8,415.4%. The analysis identified 31 extreme outliers using a three-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 3.7%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Because this indicator relies on modeled estimates for many countries, particularly those with incomplete civil registration, values should be interpreted with appropriate caution.