Infant mortality in Nigeria 1955-2020

In 1955, the infant mortality rate in Nigeria was two hundred deaths per thousand live births, meaning that twenty percent of all newborns would not survive past their first birthday. Infant mortality would gradually decline in Nigeria over the next three decades, as mass vaccination campaigns and improvements in access to nutrition would lead to a sharp decline in the causes of infant and child mortality. This decline would largely level off at around 125 deaths per thousand live births beginning in the late 1980s, as a decline in oil revenues would lead to a scaling back of many government health programs, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic would spread rapidly throughout the country beginning in 1981 (as of 2019, Nigeria has the highest rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission worldwide). As HIV treatment would gradually improve, and the Nigerian economy would begin to recover in the 21^st century, infant mortality would to decline once more in the 2000s. Despite this decline, in 2020, it is estimated that over six percent of all newborns do not make it to their first birthday, which is among the highest infant mortality rates in the world.