Global, regional, and national causes of death in children and adolescents younger than 20 years: an open data portal with estimates for 2000–21 [COMMENT]

Abstract

Almost 6.5 million children and adolescents younger than 20 years died globally in 2021, the vast majority from preventable causes. Reliable and timely data on causes of death are needed to better focus the attention of the global community on improving the survival of children and adolescents and to guide effective policy and programmes. But no less importantly, these data must be publicly available and easily accessible. We introduce an open data portal with yearly estimates on causes of death for children and adolescents younger than 20 years for the period 2000–21. The data hosted in this portal are part of a joint effort between the Child and Adolescent Causes of Death Estimation (CA CODE) project and the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME). The portal is managed by UNICEF and was first launched in 2008 by UN IGME. Cause-specific mortality estimates produced by the CA CODE project have now been incorporated for the first time, aiming to start a dialogue with countries about their mortality data to improve cause-specific estimates while increasing data transparency and use at the country level.