MORTALITY TRENDS

• Trends in national mortality rates •  

Graphs showing time trends in mortality rates

Population of India in 5-year

birth cohorts: 1950-2010

Graph showing population of India in 5-year birth cohorts

Notes: The top black line labelled "0-4" shows the number of children in each year who were aged less than 5. The blue line labelled "5-9" shows the number who were aged 5 to 9 (ie, 5 years older), and so on down the graph.

The number of children aged less than 5 has been drifting downward since a peak of 128 million in 1997. There are about as many children aged less than 5 in India as there are people in Japan (where, in a trivial coincidence, the population is also drifting downward).

Source of data: United Nations Population Division, "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision".

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