Where in the world are babies at the lowest risk of dying?

Summary

Where in the world are babies at the lowest risk of dying?It’s difficult to compare countries because they don’t always measure infant mortality in the same way.Which country is the safest for a baby to be born? Answering this question might seem easy: divide the number of infants who die by the total number of infants born; make a map of these rates and find the lowest number.But while these comparisons are very helpful in identifying the huge differences across countries, things get a bit more complicated when it comes to the small differences between the countries with the lowest mortality rates. This is because countries measure infant deaths slightly differently, specifically the number of live births that are recorded.Two main factors can affect which babies are included as live births.The first is deciding whether a baby has shown “signs of life”. The World Health Organization has clear (and deliberately broad) criteria for this: live births should include any sign of life, even if it is assisted or very brief.1 This can include breathing, a heartbeat, a pulsating umbilical cord, or clear movement of muscles.2 These are only recommended criteria, but most rich countries now follow them.3 While these protocols might sound simple to follow, not every case will be straightforward in practice, and decisions will often rely on clinical judgment from health professionals. That can introduce some variability not only between countries but also between hospitals within countries. But overall, I expect this effect to be the much smaller of the two factors and don’t think it will have a notable impact on our country comparisons later.The second factor, which has a much larger impact on the rankings, is whether extremely premature babies should be included in these statistics. Most of us are taught that a pregnancy lasts 40 weeks. But many babies are born much earlier: at 35 weeks, 30 weeks, and even some younger than 22 weeks. Should all of these newborns be included, ...