Health & Population · Glossary
Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)
SP.DYN.IMRT.IN
Definition
Infant mortality rate is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.
Methodology for Health & Population indicators
Health and population indicators come from national vital-registration systems, demographic and health surveys, and modeling by the UN Population Division and WHO. Mortality and morbidity estimates are often modeled rather than directly observed in lower-capacity statistical systems, which means some figures are interpolations between survey years. Life expectancy is a "period" measure based on current age-specific mortality, not a forecast of how long someone born today will actually live.
How to interpret
- Always check the unit and reporting year before comparing values across countries.
- NULL or "Not available" means the World Bank did not publish a value — we never estimate.
- Year-over-year changes can be driven by methodology updates, not just real economic shifts.
Related indicators in Health & Population
- Population ages 0-14 (% of total population)
- Net migration
- Population ages 65 and above (% of total population)
- Life expectancy at birth, total (years)
- Population, total
- Fertility rate, total (births per woman)
- Urban population (% of total population)
- Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19)