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State of Child Health 2026: Child mortality

Health Policy team
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This indicator examines child mortality rates across the UK, measured as the age-standardised rate of death from all causes among children and young people aged 1–17 years per 100,000 population.
Last updated
Post date
14 July 2026
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This is one of 12 indicators in our State of Child Health resource.

What is the problem?

Child mortality rates for 1–15-year-olds in the UK are currently 8.6 per 100,000 people (2024). Since publication of the RCPCH State of Child Health report in 2020, child mortality rates have increased slightly from a rate of 8 per 100,000 people.

Scotland currently has the highest child mortality rate across the nations at 8.9 per 100,000 (2024), which has declined from 11 in 2018. In England, child mortality rates are currently 8.5 per 100,000 people (2024), representing only a marginal decline from a rate of 9 in 2018. Northern Ireland has significantly reduced from a rate of 10 per 100,000 (2018) to 7.1 (2024). Wales has seen the most significant reduction across the nations since the previous State of Child Health report, with the lowest rates of 6.4 per 100,000 (2024), compared to 13 in 2018.

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While there was a drop in UK child mortality rates in 2020 to 8 per 100,000 people, which correlates with the national lockdowns initiated due to the COVID-19 pandemic,1 this improvement was not lasting, and rates increased again to 9.5 in 2022 and 9.1 in 2023.

Year on year, patterns of child mortality vary by age across the four nations. In 2024, however, all nations recorded their highest mortality rates among children aged 1–4 years. In England and Wales, the mortality rate for this age group was 10.9 per 100,000 children, down from 13.1 per 100,000 in 2018.2

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Child death review data for ages 1-17 in England (2025) and Scotland (2024) show the highest death rates among older children aged between 15-17 years, compared to other populations. This rate was 19 per 100,000 population in England (2025)3 and 20 per 100,000 population in Scotland (2024).4

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In England there is a clear social gradient between child mortality and deprivation. In the most deprived areas (IMD1), the child death rate for 1–17-year-olds was 15.7 per 100,000 (2025), which is almost double that of the least deprived areas (IMD5) where the rate was 8.2. While child mortality has dropped in the most deprived areas from its spike of 18.5 per 100,000 in 2023, this inequality in child mortality outcomes between deprivation levels is unacceptable.

There are also clear inequalities in child mortality rates by ethnicity among those ages 1-17 in England in 2025. White (10.7 per 100,000) and Mixed (8.6 per 100,000) groups have the lowest child mortality rates compared to their peers. The highest rates were among those identified as Asian/British Asian (17.4 per 100,000), followed by Black ethnicities (16.3 per 100,000). Data on ethnicity across other UK nations remain variable in quality and reliability.

See chart in full

Suicide rates for children and young people also contribute to the child death rate for those aged 10-17. In England, those from a Mixed or Multiple ethnic background have higher rates of suicide compared with other ethnic groups,5 with suicide rates disproportionately affecting males.6

Why does it matter?

The data makes it clear that inequality, poverty and deprivation are causing unimaginable harm to children’s right to life, which is both shameful and preventable, as recognised under Article 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).7 There is an urgent need to better understand and address the unacceptable ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in child mortality rates in the UK.

As with infant mortality, child mortality has a direct and devastating impact on parents, carers and families. Repeated negative experiences, including a child death, can, over generations, lead to a pervasive lack of trust in the health system.8

Drivers of poor outcomes

As with infant mortality, there are inequalities in child mortality in the UK, which are embedded in the drivers of poor outcomes.

There are clear associations between socio-economic status and life expectancy, which are unacceptable.9 Social and economic disadvantage in early childhood is closely linked to higher child mortality and poorer health outcomes. Factors such as neighbourhood deprivation, low parental income or unemployment, lower educational attainment, insecure housing, and household material deprivation are each independently associated with an increased risk of adverse health outcomes, including preventable child deaths.10 Social and environmental conditions, including housing, are key drivers of inequalities in child mortality, with research linking preventable asthma‑related child deaths to children living in urban areas, experiencing deprivation, and environmental exposure.11

Paediatric health services in the UK are under significant pressure, with rapidly rising demand and waiting lists, driven in part by austerity-led cuts to public services and rising poverty, contributing to increasing inequalities.12 Services have been decommissioned, underfunded, or been made unavailable, which could contribute to the risk of child deaths. For example, the absence of routine 24‑hour community nursing provision for palliative care and barriers to accessing mental health services. Additional system- and service‑related issues may involve inadequate communication and information sharing between agencies. Treatment‑related issues can also contribute, including delays in initiating treatment, complications or side effects arising from treatment, and medical or surgical errors.13

As with infant mortality, ethnic minorities and low-income families face barriers to accessing healthcare. Systemic racism in healthcare can contribute to inequalities in health outcomes and, consequently, child mortality rates. For instance, paediatric diagnoses often rely on features that vary by skin tone, yet most medical resources show only light‑skinned children, leading to delayed or missed diagnoses for darker‑skinned patients.14

Why we need to act now

Without action to reduce inequalities in child mortality rates, there is a risk of reinforcing intergenerational cycles of disadvantage, higher long‑term public spending and lower economic participation over time.

As with infant mortality, child death has profound and lasting mental health impacts on parents, siblings, and carers.  

A paediatrician's insight

From Professor Ingrid Wolfe OBE, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Population Health

Your experience of supporting and/or treating children and young people at higher risk of mortality - has anything changed over time?

"Improving child survival is everyone’s responsibility. Our specific goals should be to reduce gaps between rich and poor, address disparities between White and Asian/British Asian and Black ethnicities, and prevent avoidable deaths across all groups of children.

"I am pleased that there is more attention on the UK’s child mortality rates. However, clearly this isn’t enough: overall mortality rates have plateaued, and inequalities persist. Headline data mask stark disparities, with rates rising among children living in deprivation and children from minoritised ethnic groups. These should be the headlines, and they should galvanise action.

"The UK’s record on child mortality is a quiet scandal, hidden in plain sight. It reflects policy choices about what is invested in and prioritised. The time has come for a focused national programme."

What have been challenges to supporting children and young people at higher risk of mortality - what contributes to this?

"Child survival is highly sensitive to policy and practice. Compared with peer countries such as those in Scandinavia, child mortality rates have declined at a slower rate: why? What are others doing that we aren’t? Cross-government action across economic, environmental, education, public health, and health system policy is essential. Yet the UK lacks a senior cross-government lead for child survival.  

"Inequalities in risk of death between children from different deprivation or ethnic groups remain stark. Poverty affects child survival through multiple pathways, including prematurity, sudden infant death, infection and respiratory disease, and reduced access to care. Recent years have seen the two-child benefit limit and caps to welfare benefits disproportionately impact those living in the most deprived areas. These changes have reversed earlier gains made since the 1990s, when child poverty fell.  

"The actions needed are clear. So what explains the lack of action? One problem is diffused responsibility. What is everyone’s responsibility becomes no one’s responsibility. Key determinants of child survival sit across multiple departments, including Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Education and finally the Department for Health and Social Care. Short political cycles undermine long-term investment and focus. Joined-up cross-government action is needed."

Any examples of good practice to improve child survival?

"The central argument is simple: children in the UK are dying at rates that peer nations have shown are avoidable. There is sufficient evidence across social policy, public health, clinical systems, and governance. What is lacking is political will, coherent governance, and a public movement to drive action.  

"A UK Countdown for Child Survival could make the cost of inaction visible, measurable, and politically difficult to sustain. We can learn from examples of good practice globally, including the WHO Countdown for Child Survival. Key actions could include:

  • Social and economic policy: Modelling the impact on child survival of benefit reforms and redistribution of wealth, housing quality improvements, and air quality improvements.
  • Public health: Restoring health visitor capacity to deliver lifesaving and life-enhancing universal services in early childhood is important.
  • Health systems: Implementing data-driven population health approaches to care, mapping unmet needs, prioritising early intervention, and ensuring sufficient workforce capacity and training.
  • Ethnic disparities: Community health worker models can help improve access to care and build trust in communities. Ethnicity data at Trust level must improve, with disaggregated targets.
  • Governance: A cross-government child survival lead with targets and accountability for action.
  • Data and research: Sustaining assets such as the National Child Mortality Database and Child Death Overview Panels, MBRRACE, for perinatal mortality surveillance, and RCPCH’s State of Child Health, which highlight problems, progress, and recommendations for action."
Any advice for paediatricians that would help prevent mortality risk?

"First, each clinical encounter matters: providing high quality care that includes prevention and health promotion helps prevent mortality risk. Second, we must shape care at a population level, using data to identify high and unmet need, prioritising early intervention, and keeping children well, at home, and in school. Finally, as paediatricians we are powerful advocates for policy. Joining our voices with other professionals – in general practice, health visiting, nursing, allied health, children’s social care, teachers, and more, we can push for action to protect child health and survival."

Recommendations

England
  • Ensure healthcare staff have the training and capacity to implement safeguarding procedures, engage in multi-agency collaboration, support bereaved families, and effectively engage with child death review processes – maximising learning, sharing insights, and implementing system and care improvements to prevent future child deaths
  • Deliver a targeted prevention strategy that addresses inequalities in child mortality by prioritising underserved and high-risk children and families, improving access to care, reducing barriers, providing clear information, and strengthening mental health and vaccination support for those most at risk.
  • Maintain and support the Child Death Review Programme to ensure the continued high-quality collection, analysis and interpretation of infant, child, and young person deaths in England.
Scotland
  • Strengthen the National Hub for Child Death Review to ensure that high-quality national data is consistently collected, analysed and acted upon. This should include improving transparency, strengthening accountability for implementation, and ensuring that learning from child deaths directly informs policy and practice across Scotland.  
  • Ensure that learning from child deaths is systematically embedded within the Early Child Development Transformational Change Programme, strengthening prevention across the pre-birth to three period and addressing the root causes of poor outcomes
  • Refresh and build on The Best Start plan, with a stronger focus on reducing inequalities in maternal and infant outcomes, ensuring equitable access to continuity of care, and addressing workforce capacity.
Wales
  • Strengthen medical leadership within safeguarding and support the child health workforce to deliver targeted support for at-risk children, vulnerable families and those living in deprived areas.  
  • Strengthen and support increased partnership working opportunities between health, local authorities, police and social services to ensure effective communication, early identification of risk, and timely intervention to help prevent child mortality.
  • Maintain and support the Child Death Review Programme, to ensure continued high-quality collection, analysis, and interpretation of infant, child and young person deaths in Wales.  
  • Ensure learning from child death in Wales is translated into evidenced-based preventative programmes that are disseminated throughout health, education and social care settings. This should include removing barriers to care, providing targeted vaccination strategies, clear health information and mental health support.
Northern Ireland
  • Establish and fund a multi-disciplinary Child Death Overview Panel to undertake reviews of all child deaths in Northern Ireland and make evidence-based recommendations that inform policy development and help improve services.
  • Strengthen safeguarding medical leadership and capacity through sustained workforce investment, including in safeguarding and forensic medical specialists, to ensure timely expert and clinical input, and an effective multi-agency approach for children and families.
  • Deliver clear and integrated pathways from early identification to specialist assessment within acute paediatric services to support earlier diagnosis and improved outcomes.
  • Strengthen support for children and young people experiencing poor mental health through investment in crisis pathways, workforce expansion, and targeted provision for high-need communities, including youth services, mentoring programmes, mental health support and safe spaces for children and young people.

This is one of 12 indicators in our State of Child Health resource.