Countries With the Highest Maternal Mortality

Every country with a figure for maternal mortality, ranked from highest to lowest. The top three are Nigeria (993), Chad (748) and Central African Republic (692). The middle country of the 194 has 47.

What this measures

Maternal mortality ratio, modelled estimate (per 100,000 live births). Source: WHO and the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group. For this measure, higher is worse.

Estimated with a model, like stunting, and for the same reason. Deaths in childbirth are rare in small countries with weak death records, so the agencies estimate rather than count.

This measure mostly follows how rich a country is, so this ranking is close to a ranking by national income. Each country’s page also ranks it against countries with similar incomes, which is often the fairer comparison.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2023–2023. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on maternal mortality

• Countries With the Lowest Maternal Mortality
• Maternal mortality by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Highest Life Expectancy
• Countries With the Highest Infant Mortality
• Countries With the Highest Under-5 Mortality
• Countries With the Highest Health Spending
• Countries With the Highest Suicide Rates
• Countries With the Highest Hospital Beds
• Countries With the Highest Basic Water Access
• Countries With the Highest Basic Sanitation

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.