The National Health Board (DGS) explained that a total of 83,511 babies were born in 2014, placing Portugal’s infant mortality rate at 2.85, which is among the lowest on the planet.
“This is the first time that we have seen infant death rates fall to 238. What we have here are some of the best infant mortality rates in the world”, DGS Director-General Francisco George said earlier this week.
According to data released by the death certificate information system, the rate is the second best on record, following the 2.53 death index reported in 2010, when almost 20,000 more babies were born, compared to 2014.
Francisco George argued that the falling infant mortality rate is due to greater care being taken during delivery along with a reduction in the number of caesareans being carried out in Portuguese hospitals.
This news follows recent research published by the Lancet in which Portugal was listed as being among the top ten countries in the world for newborn babies while also enjoying one of the lowest neo-natal mortality rates in the world.
In a series of papers on the topic, in collaboration with 55 global health experts, researchers, and policymakers from 27 institutions in 18 countries, the Lancet said this research was the clearest yet.
Previous research had revealed that Portugal was among the top nations in the world when it came to infant mortality, which also takes into consideration fatality rates for children up to the age of five.
However, these findings reveal that the country is, perhaps not surprisingly, among the safest for newborns up to the age of 28 days.
Portugal’s mortality rate of just 1.8 for every thousand births places it at number nine on the Lancet’s rankings according to data relating to 2012. The figures for 2014, which have not yet been taken into consideration, could see Portugal making considerable inroads on this ranking.
The rate for 2012, which was less positive for Portugal than 2010 or 2014, is more than half that recorded in the United States (4.1 deaths per 1,000 births) and also substantially better than the United Kingdom, which has a rate of 3.0 deaths.
The list is topped by Japan with a rate of 1.1 deaths, followed by Singapore, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, and Slovenia, whose rate is exactly the same as that of Portugal.
According to the Lancet, Portugal has seen its neo-natal mortality rate record a reduction of 74 percent between 1990 and 2012 and is seventh on the list of the world’s best performers in this regard.
Countries such as Switzerland, Canada, the United States and to a lesser degree the United Kingdom, were singled out for failing to use greater resources to assist in bringing down mortality rates in their respective countries.
Newborn deaths account for 44 percent of total mortality among children under five worldwide, the Lancet found, and it says they represent a larger proportion of under-five deaths now than they did in 1990.