Elevated risk of perinatal death are associated with preterm delivery, low birthweight, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), and birth asphyxia, injury or infection.
Over the last 12 years perinatal and maternal causes of death have significantly decreased in developed countries, while in developing countries this form of death is not only high, but has remained unchanged. In the developing world, death is mostly due to infectious diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea, combined with malnutrition. Some graphs and data from WHO The World Health Report (1998, there is a more recent report available online) and European Perinatal Health Report (2004). The data and reports are generally retrospective (a few years delayed) and indicate current health conditions and global trends in health.
Page Links: Introduction | Some Recent Findings | Perinatal and Maternal Death | Death According to Development | European Perinatal Health Report | USA Linked Birth and Infant Death Data | Death in Low and Middle Income Countries | WWW Links | References | Glossary
Related Pages: World Statistics | Global Population Distribution | WHO WWW Links
Perinatal mortality in the Netherlands. Keirse MJ. BMJ. 2009 Apr 22;338:b1491. PMID: 19386674
"The Netherlands’ consistently poor performance in the European perinatal mortality league is a cause for concern. Neither the concern nor the performance are new. They culminated in the late 1970s and mid-1980s when home births were erroneously put forward as the explanation. A new height was reached when the Peristat project showed that at the turn of this century the Netherlands had the highest perinatal mortality in the European Union.1 Five years on, nine new EU members have expanded the league from 15 to 24, but this has brought little change.2 In 2004, perinatal mortality was 10 per 1000 in the Netherlands, higher than in all but one of the new EU members,2 and still 9.8 per 1000 in 2006."
The infant mortality rate for babies born at or after 22 completed weeks of gestation ranged from 3.0 per 1000 live births in Sweden and Norway to over 6.5 per 1000 live births in Latvia (9.4), Lithuania (8.1), Hungary (6.6), Poland (6.8), and the Slovak Republic (7.0). (More? European Perinatal Health Report)
Recent trends in infant mortality in the United States. Macdorman MF, Mathews TJ. NCHS Data Brief. 2008 Oct;(9):1-8. PMID: 19389323
"In 1900, the U.S. infant mortality rate was approximately 100 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, while in 2000, the rate was 6.89 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. However, the U.S. infant mortality rate did not decline significantly from 2000 to 2005, which has generated concern among researchers and policy makers."
The table below shows the difference between developed and developing countries over time in terms of percentages of death in mothers and infants in the world. Note that developed countries have improved substantially even since 1985, while developing countries have remained unchanged.
|
Year : |
1985 |
1990 |
1997 |
Developed World |
5% |
4% |
1% |
Developing World |
10% |
9% |
10% |
See also other pages: Age Structure of Deaths | Leading causes of Global Deaths | Infant Health.
Published by WHO, 11 May 1998 ISBN 92 4 156189 0.
All WHO Press Releases, Fact Sheets and Features can be obtained on Internet on the WHO home page http://www.who.ch/
This material is reproduced for computers without internet access and is for educational purposes only.
This recent (2004) report contains much more than perinatal death statistics. Those interested in everything concerning mothers and the newborn need to read the full report and compare with statistics from other world locations.
The infant mortality rate for babies born at or after 22 completed weeks of gestation ranged from 3.0 per 1000 live births in Sweden and Norway to over 6.5 per 1000 live births in Latvia (9.4), Lithuania (8.1), Hungary (6.6), Poland (6.8), and the Slovak Republic (7.0). Slovenia did not provide infant death rates in its perinatal system but estimated a rate of 3.7 per 1000 live births. In general, infant mortality was higher in new EU member states (range: 3.5-9.4 per 1000 live births) than in older EU member states (range: 3.0-4.9 per 1000 live births).
Definition - The infant mortality rate is defined as the number of infant deaths (days 0-364) after live birth at or after 22 completed weeks of gestation in a given year, expressed per 1000 live births in the same year.
Data sources - Almost all countries provided data on overall infant mortality rates. However, many fewer were able to provide data on infant mortality rates by gestational age or birth weight, since infant deaths are registered in separate systems and not linked to perinatal data. These data were available for gestational age only from Flanders and Brussels in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Austria, Poland, Finland, Sweden, the UK, and Norway.
(text and graphsabove modified from European Perinatal Health Report 2004) Links: Euro-Peristat Project | European Perinatal Health Report (PDF 6.1 Mb)
Recent trends in infant mortality in the United States. Macdorman MF, Mathews TJ. NCHS Data Brief. 2008 Oct;(9):1-8. PMID: 19389323
"In 1900, the U.S. infant mortality rate was approximately 100 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, while in 2000, the rate was 6.89 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. However, the U.S. infant mortality rate did not decline significantly from 2000 to 2005, which has generated concern among researchers and policy makers."
Infant deaths and mortality rates for the five leading causes of infant death:
Links: CDC - Linked Birth and Infant Death Data | International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10))
The following data is comparing perinatal death by percentage and relative position in the 10 leading causes of death by region (2001).
Region |
Percentage of total deaths |
Rank in top 10 |
South Asia |
8.0 |
3 |
Latin America and the Caribbean |
5.0 |
3 |
Middle East and North Africa |
5.5 |
4 |
Sub-Saharan Africa |
5.3 |
5 |
East Asia and Pacific |
3.6 |
6 |
Europe and Central Asia |
not in top 10 |
- |
Data from: Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors Alan D. Lopez, Colin D. Mathers, Majid Ezzati, Dean T. Jamison, Christopher J. L. Murray, editors Washington (DC): IBRD/The World Bank and Oxford University Press; 2006 Table 3.10
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Search Apr2009 "perinatal death statistics" 1,010 reference articles of which 55 were reviews.
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infant mortality rate - defined as the number of infant deaths (days 0-364) after live birth at or after 22 completed weeks of gestation in a given year, expressed per 1000 live births in the same year.
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This page is a link to resources giving statistical information relating to death in the world. Not a happy topic, but important to understand the major trends as they also show changes in health care and disease prevention.
When looking at this "snapshot of world death", it is insightful to see the major causes of death changes over time. What do you think are the major causes of this change?
There may also be a more current report found on the WHO site, this page was prepared for an earlier version of UNSW Embryology and has only been reformatted to the current page layout.
Please email Dr Mark Hill if you wish to make a comment about this current project.