India, March 18 -- An estimated 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024, including 2.3 million newborns, according to new United Nations estimates released on Tuesday - highlighting a worrying slowdown in global progress on child survival.

Most of these deaths are preventable with proven, low-cost interventions and access to quality health care, the report stresses.

The Levels and Trends in Child Mortality report launched by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation shows that, although under-five deaths have fallen by more than half since 2000, the pace of reduction has slowed by more than 60 per cent since 2015.

Among its key findings, more than 100,000 children aged between one month and five, di...