Child mortality in DR Congo 1895-2020

As the region of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo entered the 20^th century, the population was reeling from extensive disease and exploitation under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium. As a result of both the outbreak of several epidemics, including several particularly deadly smallpox outbreaks, throughout the 1890s, as well as harsh policies enforced by the Force Publique military under Leopold II’s command, the child mortality rate for the Congo in 1895 was 423 per 1000 live births. This meant that over 42 percent of children born in the Congo in 1895 would not survive past their fifth birthday. Over the next four decades, child mortality would begin to fall somewhat, to 389 deaths per 1,000 births by 1940.

The child mortality rate would begin to fall dramatically in the decade following the Second World War, as the Belgian colonial administration pursued several development programs aimed at turning the rapidly urbanizing Congo into a “model colony”. As a result of this rapid development, as well as the beginning of large-scale implementation of vaccinations in the continent, child mortality would fall from 389 deaths per 1000 births in 1940 to 281 deaths in 1955. The decline in child mortality would slow somewhat following the DRC’s independence from Belgium in 1960, but would continue to fall for the remainder of the 20^th century. After a brief reversal in 2000, where child mortality would rise for the first time in over a century in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and several civil and regional wars, the child mortality rate would continue to drop through the first two decades of the 21^st century. In 2020, the child mortality rate in the Congo is estimated to be 100 deaths per 1,000 live births, which means that one tenth of children born today are still not expected to make it to their fifth birthday.