According to new estimates, deaths of children under the age of 5 years of age decreased from 12.7million per year in 1990 to 5.9million in 2015. It is for the first time when the figure has fallen below 6million. The report by the World Health Organisation, the UN children’s agency Unicef, the World Bank Group, and the UN’s Population Division has revealed this data.

The report reveals that in the face of the decline, 16,000 children below the age of five still die each day. It has been reported by Unicef on the basis of the data that 48million lives of kids under 5 years of age have been saved after governments started making efforts to achieve the UN goal nearly 15 years ago.

It is expected that world leaders will adopt new goals for another 15 years at a UN summit to be held this month. Deputy executive director Geeta Rao Gupta has said that almost 15 years ago, several countries tripled the rate of decline of under-5s mortality.

According to her, “But the far too large number of children still dying from preventable causes before their fifth birthday, and indeed within their first month of life, should impel us to redouble our efforts to do what we know needs to be done”.

As per the report, the major reasons behind deaths of children under the age of 5 are pneumonia, premature birth, complications that occur during labor and delivery, sepsis, which is a life-threatening complication of an infection and also malaria.