Child Mortality (under 5) in Colombia: 1800 to Today (and Tomorrow)

At MYRIAD, we examine the statistics of human lives to understand the shape of our shared history. When we look at child mortality (under 5) in Colombia, we are counting of every 1,000 children born, how many died before their fifth birthday. Every value in this long record is a statistical fact about the lives actually lived there, tracking an invisible weight that once touched nearly every family across the nation over three centuries of time.

The historical arc of this journey reveals a profound transformation from the nineteenth century into our current era. In the 1800s estimate, child mortality sat at 395.19 per 1,000 births. It declined steadily through the decades, passing the 1900s estimate of 321.65 per 1,000 births, and continuing down through the mid-century decades. By the 2020s, child mortality (under 5) in Colombia stands at 13.3 per 1,000 births, ranking #67 of 157 countries, with future projections extending toward 2.23 in the 2100s projection.

If you were born in Colombia across these changing eras, the statistical probability of surviving early childhood shifted entirely beneath your feet. An infant arriving in the 1800s estimate faced a world where nearly four hundred of every thousand peers would not reach their fifth birthday, whereas someone entering the world today enters a vastly different statistical reality. Source: UN IGME / World Bank / Gapminder, compiled by MYRIAD.

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