Securing the Future of Children and Youth - Facts

Statistics and Supporting Facts

Mortality rates

The World Bank has warned that an additional 700,000 African babies are likely to die before their first birthday as a result of the current economic crisis.

Child mortality rates have declined by 3.7 million since 1990. UNICEF has attributed this success to three main areas: immunization, Vitamin A supplementation and bednets. Canada has been the lead donor in Vitamin A supplementation and bednets, and is a significant contributor to immunization initiatives.

However, every year, close to 9 million children continue to die before their fifth birthday from easily treatable and preventable conditions.

Malnutrition contributes to 54 percent of all childhood deaths.

Immunizations

The Canadian International Immunization Initiative has contributed to remarkable progress in core immunization coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa: from 51 percent in 1998 to 74 percent in 2007.

With support from the Canadian International Immunization Initiative, global measles mortality has decreased 74 percent from 2000-2007.

More than 100 million infants are immunized each year, saving more than 3 million lives annually.

Diarrhoea

Each year, an estimated 1.5 million children die from diarrhoea. In developing countries, only 39 percent of children with diarrhoea receive the recommended treatment.

WHO and UNICEF recommend treatments for diarrhoea which are simple, inexpensive and life-saving.

Malaria

Half the world's population is at risk of malaria. Each year, nearly 1 million children under 5 die of malaria. Most of these deaths are in Africa.

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children worldwide. Pneumonia kills an estimated 1.8 million children every year―more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

Pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics, but less than 20 percent of children with pneumonia receive the treatment.

Maternal mortality

The vast majority of births to adolescents occur in developing countries. The risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is much higher for adolescents than for older women.

About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth every year―roughly 11 percent of all births worldwide.

Every day, 1,500 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications.

Globally, more than half a million women die each year because of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Of the estimated 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2005, developing countries accounted for more than 99 percent.

Conflict

An estimated 90 percent of global conflict-related deaths since 1990 were civilians, and 80 percent of these were women and children.

In Darfur (Sudan), around 2 million people were forced from their land to live in displacement camps. More than 1 million of them are children under 18, with 320,000 aged five and under.

An estimated 20 million children were forced to flee their homes because of conflict and human rights violations and are living as refugees in neighbouring countries or are internally displaced within their own national borders.

Children below the age of five constitute, on average, 10 percent of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons (IDPs). School-aged children (5-17 years) represent on average one third of refugees and asylum-seekers, IDPs and returned IDPs as well as 40 percent of returned refugees.


]