Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes Compared by Country

Why these two measures get so much attention

Maternal and infant deaths are rare, serious and closely linked to how a health system works: whether women get prenatal care, whether births happen with skilled staff, how quickly emergencies are treated, and whether newborns who need intensive care can get it. They also reflect conditions outside hospitals, such as poverty, chronic disease, nutrition and distance to care.

That makes them powerful indicators of a system as a whole, and blunt indicators of any one hospital. Keep both points in mind as you read the numbers.

The definitions

• Maternal mortality ratio (MMR): maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. It counts deaths from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth during pregnancy or shortly afterwards.
• Infant mortality rate (IMR): deaths before a child's first birthday per 1,000 live births. The series we use reports it per 100, so we've multiplied by 10 to give the more familiar per-1,000 figure.

The latest maternal mortality figures in the series are for 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The infant figures are for 2024. They're not directly comparable years, and single-year maternal figures should be read with caution.

Maternal and infant deaths by country

Sources: maternal mortality and infant mortality series, Our World in Data (accessed October 2026). Rounded to one decimal.

What stands out

The US is an outlier among wealthy countries on maternal deaths

At about 21 per 100,000, the US 2020 figure is roughly twice the UK's and Canada's, and several times that of Spain, Germany, Japan or Norway. It's closer to Costa Rica (22.0) and Uruguay (18.6) than to its high-income peers. The same series flags that US values from 2003 to 2017 were affected by a change in measurement, so long-run US trends in this data need care.

The infant gap is smaller

On infant mortality the US (5.5 per 1,000) is still behind the UK (4.1), Canada (4.7) and much of Western Europe and East Asia, but the gap is narrower than for mothers. Japan (1.8) and Norway (2.0) have the lowest figures in the table.

Latin America splits into two groups

Chile (15.0) and Uruguay (18.6) have maternal figures close to the US. Colombia (74.8), Brazil (72.1), Peru (68.5) and Mexico (59.1) are much higher. Infant mortality follows a similar pattern: around 6 per 1,000 in Chile and Uruguay, and 10–12 per 1,000 in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Panama. Our head-to-head of Latin American health systems looks at the broader structural differences behind such gaps.

Spending doesn't line up neatly with outcomes

The US spends a far larger share of its economy on health than any country in this table, yet its maternal figure is higher than countries that spend much less. Outcomes depend on who has access to care, the health of the population and how care is organised, not only on money.

What the national numbers can't tell you

National figures average everyone: rural and urban, insured and uninsured, routine births and high-risk pregnancies, public and private hospitals. Within any country, risks can differ greatly between regions and groups. A high national figure doesn't mean every maternity unit is unsafe, and a low one doesn't guarantee that a given hospital is well equipped.

If you're weighing pregnancy-related care in another country, whether fertility treatment, prenatal care or a birth, the national table is a starting point. The questions that matter are about the specific hospital. Our methodology primer explains why population averages and facility quality are different questions.

Questions to ask any maternity or fertility unit

These questions apply whether you're comparing hospitals at home or abroad:

1. Is there a neonatal intensive care unit on site, and what level of care does it provide? If not, where would a newborn be transferred, and how?
2. Is an anaesthesiologist available around the clock for emergency caesareans and pain relief?
3. Is there a blood bank on site, or how quickly can blood be supplied in a haemorrhage? See our guide to blood supply and transfusion safety.
4. How are high-risk pregnancies identified and managed, and which specialists are involved?
5. What happens in an emergency at night or at weekends? Who is physically present?
6. For fertility treatment: how does the clinic manage complications, and which hospital does it use if you need admission?

Our complication-infrastructure checklist covers ICU, blood bank and anaesthesia questions in more depth.

Colombia's legal protections for pregnant women

Colombia's main health statute, Ley 1751 de 2015, names pregnant women among the groups that receive special protection from the state (Article 11), alongside children, older adults and others. It says their care can't be limited by administrative or economic restrictions, and that measures should guarantee their access to services during and after pregnancy. Laws set the framework; outcomes depend on how well services reach people in practice, which the national figures above reflect.

Reading the gaps correctly

Small numbers move a lot

Maternal deaths are rare in high-income countries. In a country with relatively few births, a handful of deaths more or less can shift the ratio noticeably from year to year. That's one reason a single year's ranking among low-mortality countries, such as Norway, Australia and Spain, shouldn't be over-interpreted. The difference between 1.7 and 2.9 per 100,000 is far less meaningful than the difference between 21 and 75.

Mothers and infants can tell different stories

The two measures don't always move together. The US ranks worse on maternal deaths than on infant deaths, relative to its peers. Cuba's infant figure (6.8 per 1,000) is close to Uruguay's, but its maternal figure (39.3) is about twice as high. Maternal deaths often depend on emergency obstetric care and the mother's own health, while infant deaths also reflect newborn intensive care, prematurity and conditions in the first year of life. Looking at both gives a fuller picture than either alone.

Trends need consistent methods

Before concluding that a country is getting better or worse, check that the method didn't change over the period. The US note in this series is a reminder that it sometimes does.