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Over 25,000 children die every day around the world.
That is equivalent to:
- 1 child dying every 3.5 seconds
- 17-18 children dying every minute
- A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every 1.5 weeks
- An Iraq-scale death toll every 16–38 days
- Over 9 million children dying every year
- Some 70 million children dying between 2000 and 2007
The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.
This web page has the following sub-sections:
Why is this tragedy not in the headlines?
UNICEF’s 2000 Progress of Nations report tried to put these numbers into some perspective:
The continuation of this suffering and loss of life contravenes the natural human instinct to help in times of disaster. Imagine the horror of the world if a major earthquake were to occur and people stood by and watched without assisting the survivors! Yet every day, the equivalent of a major earthquake killing over 30,000 young children occurs to a disturbingly muted response. They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
— A spotty scorecard, UNICEF, Progress of Nations 2000
Unfortunately, it seems that the world still does not notice. It might be reasonable to expect that death and tragedy on this scale should be prime time headlines news. Yet, these issues only surface when there are global meetings or concerts (such as the various G8 summits, the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005, etc).
Images © UNICEF
Furthermore, year after year, we witness that when those campaigns end and the meetings conclude, so does the mainstream media coverage.
It feels as though even when there is some media attention, the ones who suffer are not the ones that compel the mainstream to report, but instead it is the movement of the celebrities and leaders of the wealthy countries that makes this issue newsworthy.
Even rarer in the mainstream media is any thought that wealthy countries may be part of the problem too. The effects of international policies, the current form of globalization, and the influence the wealthy countries have on these processes is rarely looked at.
Instead, promises and pledges from the wealthy, powerful countries, and the corruption of the poorer ones—who receive apparently abundant goodwill—make the headlines; the repeated broken promises, the low quality and quantity of aid, and conditions with unfair strings attached do not.
Accountability of the recipient countries is often mentioned when these issues touch the mainstream. Accountability of the roles that international institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, and their funders (the wealthy/powerful countries), rarely does. The risk is that citizens of these countries get a false sense of hope creating the misleading impression that appropriate action is taken in their names.
It may be harsh to say the mainstream media is one of the many causes of poverty, as such, but the point here is that their influence is enormous. Silence, as well as noise, can both have an effect.
Recent headlines in context
When initially writing this, the BBC’s top story on prime time television was about a British child kidnapped in Portugal. This is definitely a tragic story that needs reporting, but why, for the BBC and other British media outlets that pride themselves in outstanding international media coverage, is the plight of millions of children not daily headlines?
Another recent tragedy that sustained days of headline and prime time media coverage was the Virginia Tech massacre’s in the US. When media critics at Media Lens asked for the BBC’s rationale for such sustained coverage compared to more people dying each day in Iraq and receiving just a few minutes in comparison, the BBC responded that it happens every day in Iraq. See Putting Virginia Tech in Perspective for the follow up from Media Lens.
Some people fear there will be fatigue at hearing those depressing stories all the time, or the advertisers will pressure the media companies to put a bit more entertainment or good news on so that buying moods are not affected.
However, news of tragedies in Iraq are also depressing, but nevertheless do received regular headline coverage.
Also there is worry that the lack of sensationalism attached to reporting the same news story each day will result in lower television viewing ratings and this may have various consequences—especially where advertising is concerned.
Finally there is the question of whether people want to hear about such depressing news stories. After all the media feels it is delivering what its viewers would like. However, it is difficult for people to know what they do or do not want to see, if they are never given the options of the alternatives. If the magnitude of this suffering is hardly reported in a sustained manner, how can viewers judge whether they wish to watch it or not?
About Child Deaths
Of the 9.2 million child deaths (under-5s) in 2007, the vast majority occurred in just two regions:
UNICEF also notes that the global child mortality rate declined by almost a quarter between 1990 and 2007:
| Region | Under-5 deaths per 1,000 live births |
|---|---|
Source: Child Survival and Health, ChildInfo, UNICEF, last accessed March 22, 2009 Notes: Percentages are rounded; Each mortality figure shown as follows:
| |
| Sub-Saharan Africa |  186 148 |
| South Asia | 125 78 |
| Middle East and North Africa | 79 46 |
| East Asia and Pacific | 55 27 |
| Latin America and Caribbean | 55 26 |
| CEE/CIS | 53 25 |
| Industrialized | 10 6 |
| Developing | 103 74 |
| World | 93 68 |
Progress has certainly been made as each year the number of children under 5 dying is slowly coming down. However, as UNICEF cautioned in their State of the World’s Children, 2008 
report, “progress has been unevenly distributed” (p.25). For example, good progress was made by a few nations with large populations, but many countries made “no progress or insufficient progress” (p.iii)
Also of concern is that the global financial crisis, largely the making of rich countries, is affecting the poorest. Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, estimates between 200,000 and 400,000 additional children will die because of this global financial crisis.
Why is child mortality important to understand? UNICEF summarizes:
The under-five mortality rate, often known by its acronym U5MR or simply as the child mortality rate … has several advantages as a barometer of child well-being in general and child health in particular.
First, it measures an ‘outcome’ of the development process rather than an ‘input’, such as per capita calorie availability or the number of doctors per 1,000 population—all of which are means to an end.
Second, the U5MR is known to be the result of a wide variety of inputs: the nutritional status and the health knowledge of mothers; the level of immunization and oral rehydration therapy; the availability of maternal and child health services (including prenatal care); income and food availability in the family; the availability of safe drinking water and basic sanitation; and the overall safety of the child’s environment, among other factors.
Third, the U5MR is less susceptible to the fallacy of the average than, for example, per capita gross national income (GNI per capita). This is because the natural scale does not allow the children of the rich to be 1,000 times as likely to survive, even if the human-made scale does permit them to have 1,000 times as much income. In other words, it is much more difficult for a wealthy minority to affect a nation’s U5MR, and it therefore presents a more accurate, if far from perfect, picture of the health status of the majority of children (and of society as a whole).
— State of the World’s Children, 2008 , UNICEF, January 2008, p.2 (see also p.149 for more details)
Notes and Sources
Sources for child deaths
These mortality figures are from UNICEF. 70 million covers deaths between 2000 and 2007, the latest figures from UNICEF at time of writing.
The term “Children” in this context means infants under the age of 5. The tragedy is therefore even worse if older children, adults, and the elderly are to be considered.
The approximate number of deaths in those five years is calculated by averaging the deaths per year of known figures and multiplying by 7 years, which gives a total of 70.90 million deaths.
Given the population is increasing, the reducing actual numbers shows a percentage decline in these deaths over those seven years, by 0.04%.
In a way, this feels like a very small reduction given that many of the illnesses and conditions that children suffer are easily preventable, technically.
Taking a longer term view, since 1960 (when child mortality numbers were first being recorded) the annual number of child deaths has halved, from 20 million in 1960 to just 9.2 million in 2007.
The rate of reduction varies by region, with poorer regions having higher child mortality rates, though all regions are seeing a reduction as the years go by:
In addition, given the population in 1960 was 3 billion whereas 2007 was about 6.65 billion this means that there has been an almost five-fold improvement in saving lives of children from a percentage basis. That is, although population has increased (a lot), the number of child deaths has reduced even more.
Explanation for five-fold saving
- 20 million divided by 3 billion is 0.00667.
- 9.2 million divided by 6.65 billion is 0.0013.
- 0.00667 divided by 0.0013 is approximately 4.82
The sources are typically the UNICEF web site and their progress of nations reports. They have a statistical database, which (at the time of writing) uses 2006 as the latest available data. In addition, their recently release State of the World’s Children 2009 report provides 2007 data.
| Year | Per year (millions) | Per day | Per hour | Per minute | Per second | Population (approx) | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Some values have been rounded for display. | |||||||
| 2000 | 11 | 30,137.99 | 1,255.71 | 20.93 | 0.35 | 6.1 billion | 0.18% |
| 2003 | 10.6 | 29,041.10 | 1,210.05 | 20.17 | 0.34 | 6.3 billion | 0.17% |
| 2005 | 10.14 | 27,786.30 | 1,157.76 | 19.30 | 0.32 | 6.45 billion | 0.16% |
| 2006 | 9.7 | 26,575.34 | 1,107.31 | 18.46 | 0.31 | 6.5 billion | 0.15% |
| 2007 | 9.2 | 25,205.48 | 1,050.23 | 17.50 | 0.29 | 6.65 billion | 0.14% |
See also the following:
- Progress of Nations 2000, UNICEF, 2000;
- Robert E. Black, Saul S Morris, Jennifer Bryce, Where and why are 10 million children dying every year?, The Lancet, Volume 361, Number 9376, 28 June 2003. (Note, while the article title says 10 million, their paper says 10.8 million.)
- State of the World’s Children, 2005, UNICEF (this cites the number as 10.6 million in 2003)
- State of the World’s Children, 2008 , UNICEF, provides approximate figures for 2006.
- State of the World’s Children, 2009 , UNICEF, provides approximate figures for 2007.
Sources for Asia Tsunami comparison
See the article about the Asian Tsunami in December 2004 for comparative numbers.
In summary, approximately 230,000 people died in that disaster. At 26,500 deaths per day, that would be about 8.6 days.
Sources for Iraq comparison
For the Iraq estimate, the John Hopkins study (reported in the Lancet) found 400,000 to 950,000 deaths since the 2003 Iraq invasion (average of some 655,000). Dividing 400,000 by 26,500 gives 15, and 950,000 by 27,000 gives 36.
As an aside, George Bush and many others dismissed this study in the Lancet as lacking credibility, using discredited methodologies, and instead used the Iraq Body Count statistics (of 30,000 at the time, though it is now reported at about 66,000).
If Iraq Body Count statistics are to be used, then the number of days in which child deaths match the post 2003 Iraq death toll is just two or three days. The Iraq Body Count statistics are often criticized because they rely on mainstream media reporting, which is heavily censored and managed by the US in Iraq. Nonetheless they provided criticism of the John Hopkins study (often referred to as the Lancet study as that is where it was published).
The authors of the study defended it noting that they used the very methodology that the US government is teaching others (and thus dismissed Bush’s claim of using discredited methodologies). The full report in the Lancet also notes that casualty reporting in war time tends to be grossly underestimated, so their numbers may not be as hard to accept as it initially sounds. This caused controversy when reported in October 2006, and is detailed further on this site’s Iraq media reporting section which includes the relevant links.
Related Information
Throughout this site, many issues are discussed that rarely sustain (or enter) mainstream media coverage. The articles listed below are ones that provide a bit more detail behind the above figures.
- Poverty facts and stats
- G8 Summit 2005—an example of the paradox of extensive media coverage but of only a few issues
- Mainstream Media
- Health Issues
See also Poverty.com for more interactive information.
Where next?
Related articles
- Poverty Facts and Stats
- Structural Adjustment—a Major Cause of Poverty
- Poverty Around The World
- Today, over 25,000 children died around the world
- Corruption
- US and Foreign Aid Assistance
- United Nations World Summit 2005
- IMF & World Bank Protests, Washington D.C.
- Economic Democracy
- Poverty Links for More Information
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Anup Shah, Today, over 25,000 children died around the world, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Sunday, March 22, 2009
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- Created: Sunday, May 06, 2007
- Last Updated: Sunday, March 22, 2009