Danish infant-deaths for babies under 1 years old has decreased drastically from 1968 to 2018. This brings Denmark well under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 regarding the neonatal mortality rate.

by Johanne Jedig Wejse

In 1968, 1219 newly born babies died before they turned 1 year in Denmark. Since then, the number of infant deaths in Denmark has been decreasing steadily, with the most drastic fall from 1971, where 1019 babies died, till 1981 where 419 babies died. In 2018, 226 out of the total 61.476 new-born babies died before they turned 1 year. 

The Danish State Institute of Diseases, called Statens Serum’s Institut or SSI, cannot point to a unanimous reason for the decrease in infant-deaths. However, multiple studies indicate that it might be because of a rise in awareness of the negative impacts of nicotine, alcohol and caffeine while pregnant, as fewer Danish women smoke cigarettes and drink coffee and alcohol while they are pregnant. 

Sustainable Development Goal 3

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 is aiming to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages’, and one of the targets under this goal is to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1000 live births under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1000 live births. In 1973, when the earliest birth numbers are from, the Danish mortality rate was 11,5 per 1000 live births. This has been significantly decreased up until 2018, when the mortality rate was 3,5 per 1000 live births. Besides being a significant change for the individual parents, who won’t have to fear losing their new-born infant quite as much, this is also a significant indicator for the Danish welfare-state. Over time, neonatal mortality rates have been accepted as an indicator for rising living standards, improving welfare schemes (for the infant as well as the mother), and medical progress.