Infant Mortality in Europe by Country (2024)
Infant mortality across 35 European countries in 2024, ranked highest to lowest: 9.0 deaths per 1,000 live births in Turkey down to 0.0 in Liechtenstein. Eurostat data.
Data
| # | Country | deaths per 1,000 live births | Change vs 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turkey | 9 | -1 |
| 2 | Georgia | 7.4 | -0.8 |
| 3 | Romania | 6.6 | +1 |
| 4 | Slovakia | 5.9 | +0.3 |
| 5 | Luxembourg | 5.3 | +1 |
| 6 | Malta | 5 | +1.4 |
| 7 | Serbia | 4.6 | -0.1 |
| 8 | Bulgaria | 4.5 | -0.4 |
| 9 | Denmark | 4.3 | +0.8 |
| 10 | France | 4.1 | +0.1 |
| 11 | Hungary | 3.8 | +0.8 |
| 12 | Greece | 3.7 | +0.3 |
| 13 | Poland | 3.6 | -0.3 |
| 14 | Belgium | 3.5 | +0.4 |
| 15 | Germany | 3.3 | +0.1 |
| 16 | Ireland | 3.3 | +0.1 |
| 17 | Netherlands | 3.3 | -0.3 |
| 18 | Switzerland | 3.3 | unchanged |
| 19 | Croatia | 3.2 | -0.7 |
| 20 | Austria | 3.1 | +0.3 |
| 21 | Cyprus | 3 | -1.5 |
| 22 | Portugal | 3 | +0.5 |
| 23 | Spain | 3 | +0.4 |
| 24 | Lithuania | 2.9 | +0.1 |
| 25 | Italy | 2.5 | unchanged |
| 26 | Czechia | 2.3 | +0.1 |
| 27 | Finland | 2.1 | +0.3 |
| 28 | Norway | 2.1 | +0.1 |
| 29 | Sweden | 2 | -0.1 |
| 30 | Slovenia | 1.7 | -0.1 |
| 31 | Montenegro | 1.6 | -0.5 |
| 32 | Latvia | 1.5 | -1.1 |
| 33 | Estonia | 1.4 | -0.3 |
| 34 | Iceland | 1.4 | -0.9 |
| 35 | Liechtenstein | 0 | -5.5 |
About this Dataset
Infant mortality is the indicator that has improved the most and been talked about the least. Turkey tops this ranking at 9.0 deaths per 1,000 live births — a figure that would have placed it comfortably in the best quarter of Europe in the early 1990s. The panel average is now 3.2, -0.1 on 2023.
The table is ordered highest-first. In this ranking, a low number is the good outcome, and the countries at the bottom of the table are the ones performing best.
Two cautions before reading the ordering as a league table. First, the small-country rows are statistically noisy: a state with under 5,000 annual births moves whole points on a couple of deaths, which is why Liechtenstein and its neighbours at the foot of the table change position sharply from year to year. Second, registration thresholds for extremely preterm births differ between countries, and a country that registers more births at the edge of viability records more infant deaths for identical clinical performance. The persistent gap between the top group (Turkey, Georgia and Romania) and the western European average is large enough to survive both caveats.
Every row is the figure published for 2024; no value is carried over from an adjacent year to fill a gap. Albania and North Macedonia have not published a 2024 figure and are left out rather than carried forward from an older year. The chart tracks a fixed panel of 32 countries: those reporting in every year from 2005. The line therefore moves because the countries moved, not because the sample changed.
Country pages: Turkey · Georgia · Romania · Slovakia · Luxembourg · Malta · Serbia · Bulgaria · Denmark · France · Hungary · Greece · Poland · Belgium · Germany · Ireland · Netherlands · Switzerland · Croatia · Austria · Cyprus · Portugal · Spain · Lithuania · Italy · Czechia · Finland · Norway · Sweden · Slovenia · Montenegro · Latvia · Estonia · Iceland · Liechtenstein