Top 100 Countries by Infant Mortality Rate, 2026 Snapshot

Overview: what the infant mortality ranking measures

Infant mortality is a child-survival indicator. It shows the risk of dying before the first birthday, expressed per 1,000 live births. The indicator is closely connected with maternal care, newborn care, nutrition, vaccination systems, clean water, sanitation, poverty, conflict exposure and the reach of primary healthcare.

The ranking is ordered from highest to lowest so public-health readers can quickly see where infant survival remains under the greatest pressure. It should not be read as a simple ranking of hospital quality, healthcare spending or government performance by itself.

The table uses one metric, one unit and one source family. It ranks rates, not the absolute number of infant deaths. A country with a lower rate can still have more infant deaths if it has many more births.

Why infant mortality rates differ between countries

Infant mortality rates differ because the first year of life is sensitive to several conditions at once. Countries with stronger prenatal care, skilled birth attendance, newborn intensive care, vaccination coverage, nutrition support and rapid treatment for infections usually have lower infant mortality. Countries affected by conflict, displacement, food insecurity or weak rural health access often face higher risk.

For this reason, the ranking should be read as a child-survival risk signal. It does not identify one single cause for each country, and it does not show within-country inequality between urban and rural areas, income groups or conflict-affected regions.

Top 10 highest infant mortality rates

The highest entries in this 2024 estimate snapshot are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Sudan is above 70, while Nigeria is exactly 70 deaths before age 1 per 1,000 live births.

Top 10 by infant mortality, World Bank / UN IGME 2024 estimate

Value = deaths before age 1 per 1,000 live births. The ranking uses World Bank / UN IGME 2024 estimates, descending.

Methodology

The metric is World Bank indicator SP.DYN.IMRT.IN: mortality rate, infant, per 1,000 live births. The underlying source named by the World Bank is the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Values are ranked in descending order.

Ranking formula: sort value descending. Where several entities share the same rounded value, the table uses alphabetical order within the tie. The 100th row is within a rounded-value tie at 12 per 1,000 live births, so positions around the cutoff should not be interpreted as materially different.

Reliability note: infant mortality estimates depend on civil registration, household surveys, censuses and statistical modeling. In countries where birth and death registration is incomplete, international estimates help comparability but can carry more uncertainty than direct vital-registration systems.

Limits: the metric does not measure neonatal mortality alone, under-5 mortality, maternal mortality, health spending, hospital access, inequality within countries, or the number of infant deaths in absolute terms.

Main ranking: Top 100 countries and economies by infant mortality rate

Use the controls to search by country or economy, filter by World Bank region, change sort order, or switch between Top 10, Top 20 and all 100 rows.

Top 100 highest infant mortality rates, World Bank / UN IGME 2024 estimates

Source snapshot: World Bank Data indicator SP.DYN.IMRT.IN with UN IGME 2024 estimates. Values are displayed as whole numbers and ranked consistently from highest to lowest.

Insights from the infant mortality ranking

What this ranking means for readers

A higher infant mortality rate means a higher estimated probability that a child born in that year would die before reaching age 1, expressed per 1,000 live births. The table is therefore a child-survival risk ranking, not a population-size ranking.

Published World Bank / UN IGME estimates are designed for international comparison. They are useful for cross-country analysis, but they should be read with the limits of demographic estimation, civil-registration coverage, survey evidence and conflict-related data gaps in mind.

The biggest interpretation risk is confusing rates with counts. A country with a lower rate can still have more infant deaths in absolute numbers if it has a much larger number of births. This page ranks the rate only.

FAQ

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