2025 may go down as a year of infamy. Not because U.S. President Donald Trump’s apparent disdain for allies will mark the end of the liberal international order, or because the war in Ukraine seemed to turn in Russia’s favor. Or because, despite diplomatic efforts to end several wars, it was yet another year of near record global conflict.
Instead, it will live in infamy for a completely basic and preventable reason: a rise in global child mortality. After decades of decline, 2025 will witness an increase in deaths of children under five years old, from 4.6 million last year to around 4.8 million.
This reverses a trend that experts view as one of the world’s most notable global health achievements. From 1990 to 2023, the child mortality rate across the world fell by nearly 60 percent, with child deaths declining from almost 13 million in 1990 to just under 5 million in 2023. This occurred while the global population rose from 5 billion to 8 billion over the same time period. The last year in which child mortality rose noticeably was in the 1970s.