Children born in the UK can expect to live to 81, an average of 38 years more than those born in Sierra Leone

Every January much attention is given to the first UK-born babies of the year. Britons who become parents in 2016 can be reassured that, statistically speaking, their newborns’ prospects are promising.

Data collected by the World Bank indicates that the life expectancy of UK children now stands at 81 years, while more than eight in 10 boys and more than nine in 10 girls born in the UK today will reach their 65th birthday.

Primary school enrolment rates are at 100% and immunisation programmes cover more than 90% of the under-two population. Just four in 1,000 children born will die before they reach the age of five, the lowest ever level for this particular measure.

Elsewhere, however, the prospects of children born today varies hugely depending on where they are born and grow up.

For example, while the average life expectancy for a child born in Hong Kong stands at almost 84 years – the highest in the world – the figure falls to just 46 years for a baby born in Sierra Leone. It is one of five countries – along with Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where the average life expectancy stands at below 50 years.

Fewer than a quarter of babies born in Lesotho will reach their 65th birthday according to United Nations predictions, while in Hong Kong 95% of girls and 89% of boys will do so.

In seven countries at least one in 10 babies born will die before they reach their fifth birthday.



The highest mortality rate among under-fives is in Angola, at 157 deaths per 1,000 live births, while the comparable rate in the Central African Republic, Somalia and Chad is between 130 and 139 deaths per 1,000 children born. Other countries where the mortality rates among under-fives stands at more than 100 per 1,000 live births are Nigeria, Mali and Sierra Leone.

This compares with two deaths per 1,000 in Luxembourg, Iceland and Finland.

The World Bank statistics for the last available year also give an indication of child labour in a number of countries, defined as children involved in economic activity for at least one hour in the reference week of the survey.

The most recent statistics for Cameroon and Sierra Leone indicate that 62% and 59% of children between the ages of seven and 14 are in employment for at least an hour a week.

Other countries with high levels of children in work were also recorded in Burkina Faso, Togo and Niger, where around half of the seven- to 14-year-old cohort are in employment.

However, child labour is not restricted to Africa: almost 38% of Haitian and 31% of Nicaraguan children in the same age group are in work. Peru, Macedonia and Guatemala also have high levels of of seven- to 14-year-olds in work, according to the most recent data since 2010.



The World Bank’s world development indicators also shows that gender can influence children’s prospects in certain countries.

In Guinea and Central African Republic about three-quarters of all children attend primary school, yet their female youth literacy rates, last recorded in 2010, remain low at just 22% and 27% respectively. The corresponding rates for males aged 15-24 are 38% and 49% respectively.

Although data for school attendance in Afghanistan is unavailable, literacy figures for the country show that less than a third of female 15- to 24-year-olds can read and write, compared with 62% of their male counterparts.

The world’s lowest literacy rates are recorded in Niger, where a third of 15- to 24-year-old males and 15% of girls are literate, despite seven in 10 boys and nearly six in 10 girls attending primary school.

• This article was amended on 4 January 2016. An earlier version said the figures for Niger in the final paragraph were for illiteracy. That has been corrected.