April 2025

By

World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, UN Population Fund, World Bank and UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (population division)

Key findings

Nigeria had the highest number of maternal deaths and accounted for more than a quarter (28.7 percent) of all estimated global maternal deaths in 2023, with approximately 75,000 deaths.

Only three other countries had more than 10,000 maternal deaths in 2023—India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan (11,000). India and DRC accounted for 7.2 percent each, while Pakistan accounted for 4.1 percent of global maternal deaths

Together, these four countries accounted for almost half (47 percent) of all maternal deaths globally in 2023.

China, the only other country on the planet comparable to India by population registered just 1,400 maternal deaths in 2023.

India’s maternal mortality rate (MMR)—or the rate at which women per lakh die due to childbirth or pregnancy-related issues—was 362 in 2000 and came down to 80 in 2023, marking a decline of 78 percent over the period.

China, in comparison, had a MMR of 56 in 2000 which came down to 16 in 2023, registering a decline of more than 70 percent

Overall, a 40 percent global decline in maternal deaths was seen between 2000 and 2023.

In 2021, when the second wave of COVID was at its peak in most parts of the world, an estimated 40,000 more women died due to pregnancy or childbirth, taking the total number of deaths that year to 3,22,000 from 282,000 the previous year.

Haemorrhage is a direct obstetric cause of death and remains the leading cause of maternal mortality globally. Other direct obstetric causes of maternal death include hypertensive disorders of pregnancy; pregnancy-, childbirth-, and postpartum-related infections; and complications of unsafe abortion.

The third most common cause of maternal death is hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.