I compared under-5 mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) between the United States and China using World Bank data (2010–2024).
China shows a strong decline from 15.7 to 5.7, while the United States decreases more gradually from 7.3 to 6.5 over the same period.
Despite different starting points, both countries continue a downward trend, with China showing a much faster improvement over this period.
Source: World Bank Data
Chart tool: Livegap Charts
by omar_sedki
6 Comments
I assume that there is going to be a point where this number cant really go any lower and I am curious what that number might be.
I also assume that this is because China started caring about its population decline and fixing an obvious problem of cant be alive if you’re dead?
How much was spent making improvements in this time?
Does that count the newborns that are thrown into the river if they aren’t male or does it only count the ones that are allowed to grow up?
For what it’s worth, the US tends to have higher “infant mortality” rates than most countries because of how hard they’ll fight to save a premie.
It sounds paradoxical, but if your policy is to classify any preterm child that doesn’t survive a week outside the womb as a stillborn, then you move a lot of “infant mortality” to another category.
How much can the data from China be trusted?
Curious how this looks split out by region or states by majority political party. I know California and the northeast by themselves are much lower
The propagandists have been hard at work in here lately.