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UK child mortality rate “among highest in Europe” (6 May 2014)

Date: 06/05/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, UK child mortality rate “among highest in Europe”

US researchers at the University of Seattle in Washington have found that the UK has the highest infant death rate and one of the highest child mortality rates in western Europe.

The researchers found that in 2012-2013, the UK death rate among children under five was 3,800, giving the UK a mortality rate of 4.9 per 1,000 children among under-fives.

The country with the lowest rate in western Europe is Iceland ?which has more than half the death rate of the UK for under-fives".

The UK also has the worst death in western Europe among children aged between one and four years’ old. Britain’s infant mortality rates for children who die in the first week of life and for those who die aged between one month and one year are also among the worst in western Europe. Across the EU, the UK’s infant mortality rates are similar to those in countries like Serbia and Poland.

The researchers who conducted the study say that the UK’s poor record on infant and child deaths is a result of high levels of inequality across Britain, as well as high levels of smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy among UK mothers.

The only other country in the EU with a worse death rate among children in the first five years of life is Malta, the US team found.

The researchers also found that in Europe, children living in central Europe or eastern Europe are more likely to die in the first five years of life than elsewhere in the EU. In central Europe, the death rate for under-fives is 6.7 per 1,000, compared with 9.7 per 1,000 in eastern Europe.

However, outside Europe, researchers found that Britain’s child death rate was worse than Israel, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Japan.

The highest death rates in the world were in Guinea-Bissau in west Africa, which has the highest rate of child mortality at 150 per 1,000.

Singapore was found to have the lowest child death rate at 2.3 per 1,000 children under five annually.

Across the globe, more than 6.3 million children died before the age of five in 2013.

Writing in the journal The Lancet, lead researcher Dr Christopher Murray said that researchers were “surprised” by the UK figures because Britain “has made so many significant advances in public health over the years.”

Dr Murray said:

“The higher-than-expected child death rates in the UK are a reminder to us all that, even as we are seeing child mortality decline worldwide, countries need to examine what they are doing to make sure more children grow into adulthood.”

In the UK, deaths were linked to children born to poorer families, with a possible impact as a result of cuts in welfare benefits among low-income or no-income families.

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For expert legal advice on children law and childcare, contact Duncan Lewis childcare solicitors on 020 7923 4020.

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