Mapping the geography of child mortality: a key step in addressing disparities

A hallmark of the past decade has been the remarkable progress made in reducing maternal and child mortality, an achievement credited in some measure to the Millennium Development Goals. The reduction in child deaths from an estimated 12·7 million under-5 deaths in 1990 to fewer than 6 million deaths by 2015 is a remarkable achievement in global health. 1 The fact that this reduction is less than uniform and varies widely between countries and in populations within countries has also been well recognised.