A new report on maternal mortality, released by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank Group and the United Nations Population Division, estimates a worldwide number of 295 000 maternal deaths in 2017. This figure represents a 38% reduction since the year 2000 an average reduction of just under 3% per year.
For women, this means that the global lifetime risk of maternal mortality – the risk that a 15-year old girl will die eventually from a maternal cause – was approximately 1 in 190 for 2017, nearly half of the level of risk in 2000.
The report presents internationally comparable global, regional and country-level estimates and trends for maternal mortality between 2000 and 2017. It highlights the inequalities between the world’s least developed countries and the rest of the world.