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Most of the decline in infant mortality since 1980 is due to fewer deaths as a result of congenital defects and medical conditions beginning during the perinatal period (just before and after birth), and fewer cot deaths.
The number of fatal accidents among children has dropped considerably over the past 10 years. In 1995, 45 children aged 1-14 died as a result of accidents. Twenty-five were between the ages of one and six. Accidents are rarely the cause of death among infants: In 1995 accidents caused of two of altogether 249 deaths in the first year of life. The infant mortality rate in 1995 was the lowest ever registered in Norway.
Altogether 145 children aged 1-14 died in 1995. Thirty-one per cent of the deaths were caused by accidents, while 63 per cent were caused by illnesses. The most common causes of death among children under the age of 15 are cancer, diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs and injuries from accidents. Seventy-one children aged 15-17 died in 1995, with accidents causing 42 per cent of these deaths.
Since the end of the 1950s, the number of accident injuries with a fatal outcome among children aged 0-14 has plunged. In 1956-1960, accidental deaths among children aged 0-14 averaged 247 per year. The comparative figures for 1971-1975 and 1986-1990 were 207 and 69, while by 1995 they had dropped to 47. Among children under seven the number of fatal accidents has been reduced from 160 in 1970 to 29 in 1994 and 27 in 1995.
Traffic accidents, drowning, suffocation/choking, fire and falls are the most common causes of fatal accidents among children under the age of 15. In 1995 car accidents alone caused 34 per cent of these fatal accidents.
Weekly Bulletin issue no. 12, 1998