Health
Iraq’s children are far likelier to reach their fifth birthday than a generation ago. But on every measure here — children, mothers, lifespan, doctors — Iraq is the worst or second worst of the seven countries on this map.
22of 1,000
children born in Iraq die before their fifth birthday (2024), down from 81 in 1990. It is still the highest rate of Iraq and its six neighbours.
Children
Deaths before age five, per 1,000 children born, since 1990: 73% fewer. Where a child is born still matters: in the poorest fifth of families 27 die per 1,000; in the richest, 18.
Mothers
For every 100,000 babies born in Iraq, 66 mothers die of pregnancy or childbirth (2023), down from 152 in 1985. That is the highest of the seven: next comes Jordan, at 31.
How long Iraqis live
A child born in Iraq in 2023 can expect to live 73.7 years — women 76.1, men 71.2. That is the second shortest of the seven.
- Women
- Men
Doctors and nurses
Iraq has 10.6 doctors and 25.7 nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people (2023): the fewest doctors of the seven.
Each country’s newest report; a neighbour’s may be a year older than Iraq’s.
HOW THESE NUMBERS ARE MADE
- Source — the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory. WHO GHO ↗ Children → Mothers → Lifespan → Doctors →
- Children and mothers — estimates by the UN’s inter-agency groups, built from surveys, censuses and registration, and revised as new data arrive; the wealth groups come from the same estimates.
- Doctors and nurses — the counts Iraq’s health ministry reports to WHO’s National Health Workforce Accounts.