The rate of infant mortality in Belize was 16 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2012, with an under-five mortality rate of 18 deaths per 1,000 live births. As shown in Graph 1, since the early 1990s the under-five mortality rate in Belize has been decreasing steadily, from approximately 44 deaths per 100,000 in 1990 to 17 deaths per 100,000 in 2011, but it has seen a slight increase during the period 2011-12. This decrease is encouraging, and means that the under-five mortality rate is close to the country’s target of 14 deaths per 1,000 live births, as defined by Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4). In 2010 the three most prominent known causes of death for children below the age of five years were birth asphyxia (48 per cent), injuries (12 per cent) and diarrhoea (ten per cent). Other contributory causes were congenital anomalies and pneumonia (both seven per cent).
In the period 2007-11 Belize had a reported maternal mortality ratio of 55 deaths per 100,000 live births (this figure was estimated at 53 deaths per 100,000 by UN agencies/World Bank in 2010).
