MORTALITY TRENDS

• Trends in national mortality rates •  

Graphs showing time trends in mortality rates

Male overall mortality during the first year of life in

selected western European nations: 1950-2006

Graph showing overall mortality in some western European nations, 1950-2006.

Note: This mortality rate is the number of infant deaths in a particular year for every 100 000 infants alive at the middle of that year. The number is usually quite similar to the number of births per 100 000 live births, which would be a more usual definition of the infant mortality rate.

Method: Mortality rates calculated using data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Division, then standardised for age (by taking unweighted averages of component rates) and smoothed (as weighted 3-year moving averages). For details, see the Info page.

Caution: Trends can reflect not only changes in disease occurrence or treatment, but also changes in how a cause of death is defined or coded.

WHO mortality rates for particular countries, ages and causes of death