Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest risk of death in the first month of life and is among the regions showing the least progress. However, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a faster decline in its under-five mortality rate, with the annual rate of reduction doubling between 1990–2000 and 2000–2011.

Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 38 percent of global neonatal deaths, has the highest newborn death rate (34 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011). Neonatal deaths there account for about a third of under-five deaths globally (1.1 million newborns die in the first month of life).Sub-Saharan Africa has reduced under-five mortality by 39% between 1990 and 2011.