Korea - Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)

The value for Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births) in Korea was 2.60 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 79.60 in 1960 and a minimum value of 2.60 in 2020.

Definition: Infant mortality rate is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.

Source: Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.

See also:

Year Value
1960 79.60
1961 76.10
1962 72.90
1963 69.90
1964 66.80
1965 63.70
1966 60.30
1967 56.90
1968 53.50
1969 50.20
1970 47.20
1971 44.30
1972 41.90
1973 39.90
1974 38.20
1975 36.70
1976 35.40
1977 34.10
1978 32.70
1979 31.30
1980 29.70
1981 28.00
1982 26.30
1983 24.40
1984 22.60
1985 20.80
1986 19.10
1987 17.40
1988 16.00
1989 14.60
1990 13.40
1991 12.40
1992 11.40
1993 10.50
1994 9.70
1995 9.00
1996 8.30
1997 7.80
1998 7.30
1999 6.80
2000 6.50
2001 6.10
2002 5.80
2003 5.50
2004 5.10
2005 4.80
2006 4.40
2007 4.10
2008 3.90
2009 3.70
2010 3.50
2011 3.40
2012 3.30
2013 3.20
2014 3.10
2015 3.00
2016 2.90
2017 2.80
2018 2.80
2019 2.70
2020 2.60

Development Relevance: Mortality rates for different age groups (infants, children, and adults) and overall mortality indicators (life expectancy at birth or survival to a given age) are important indicators of health status in a country. Because data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. And they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries.

Limitations and Exceptions: Complete vital registration systems are fairly uncommon in developing countries. Thus estimates must be obtained from sample surveys or derived by applying indirect estimation techniques to registration, census, or survey data. Survey data are subject to recall error, and surveys estimating infant/child deaths require large samples because households in which a birth has occurred during a given year cannot ordinarily be preselected for sampling. Indirect estimates rely on model life tables that may be inappropriate for the population concerned. Extrapolations based on outdated surveys may not be reliable for monitoring changes in health status or for comparative analytical work.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The main sources of mortality data are vital registration systems and direct or indirect estimates based on sample surveys or censuses. A "complete" vital registration system - covering at least 90 percent of vital events in the population - is the best source of age-specific mortality data. Estimates of neonatal, infant, and child mortality tend to vary by source and method for a given time and place. Years for available estimates also vary by country, making comparisons across countries and over time difficult. To make neonatal, infant, and child mortality estimates comparable and to ensure consistency across estimates by different agencies, the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), which comprises the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, the United Nations Population Division, and other universities and research institutes, developed and adopted a statistical method that uses all available information to reconcile differences. The method uses statistical models to obtain a best estimate trend line by fitting a country-specific regression model of mortality rates against their reference dates.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development ac

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Mortality