While infants in countries like Luxembourg, Japan and Iceland have some of best survival rates, those in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of south Asia face much poorer odds.

That’s according to a report on newborn mortality issued by the UN children’s agency on 20 February.

Henrietta H. Fore, Unicef’s executive director, stated in the agency’s media release:

“While we have more than halved the number of deaths among children under the age of five in the last quarter century, we have not made similar progress in ending deaths among children less than one month old… Given that the majority of these deaths are preventable, clearly, we are failing the world’s poorest babies.”

According to Unicef:

Highest newborn mortality rates
1. Pakistan: 1 in 22
2. Central African Republic: 1 in 24
3. Afghanistan: 1 in 25
4. Somalia: 1 in 26
5. Lesotho: 1 in 26
6. Guinea-Bissau: 1 in 26
7. South Sudan: 1 in 26
8. Côte d'Ivoire: 1 in 27
9. Mali: 1 in 28
10. Chad: 1 in 28

Lowest newborn mortality rates
1. Japan: 1 in 1,111
2. Iceland: 1 in 1,000
3. Singapore: 1 in 909
4. Finland: 1 in 833
5. Estonia: 1 in 769
5. Slovenia: 1 in 769
7. Cyprus: 1 in 714
8. Belarus: 1 in 667
8. Luxembourg: 1 in 667
8. Norway: 1 in 667
8. Republic of Korea: 1 in 667

The Unicef report was issued as part of the “Every Child Alive” campaign.