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

Statistics can sometimes feel abstract, but when we look at child mortality under five in Switzerland, we are tracing the fragile boundary of human life itself. Of every 1,000 children born, the data records how many died before reaching their fifth birthday. Every value across these decades represents a statistical fact about the lives actually lived there, capturing the quiet heartbreak of parents and the steady, generational accumulation of medical and social progress.

The historical arc over three centuries reveals a profound transformation. In the 1800s estimate, child mortality stood at 381.33 per 1,000 births, slowly shifting downward through the 1810s estimate, 1820s estimate, 1830s estimate, 1840s estimate, 1850s estimate, 1860s estimate, 1870s estimate, 1880s estimate, and 1890s estimate. By the 1900s estimate it was 234 per 1,000 births, continuing its descent through the 1910s estimate, 1920s estimate, 1930s estimate, 1940s estimate, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In the 2000s, 2010s, and the 2020s, the figure reached 3.9 per 1,000 births, ranking #20 of 157 countries. Projections now extend this trajectory through the 2030s projection, 2040s projection, 2050s projection, 2060s projection, 2070s projection, 2080s projection, 2090s projection, and 2100s projection down to 1.5.

If you were born in Switzerland across different eras, your odds of surviving early childhood shifted dramatically from precarious uncertainty to near certainty. Where do YOU rank among everyone ever born? →