Safe Hands.

Out of every 1,000 babies born in the European Union, 3.9 die before their fifth birthday. No other World Bank region is as low. North America, the next lowest, is at 6.4; East Asia & Pacific at 13.2; the world as a whole at 37.4, 9.7 times the EU's rate. The figures are UN estimates for 2024.

Single countries go lower still. Among the 158 countries of a million people or more with data, Estonia is lowest, at 2.0. Eleven countries are at 2.7 or below; nine of them are European, seven of them EU members. The two that aren't European are Japan, at 2.4, and Singapore, at 2.7. Not every EU country is that low: the 27 members run from 2.0 to 7.3, in Romania.

Most of the deaths that remain come right after birth. In the EU, 2.3 of every 1,000 babies die in their first 28 days, the neonatal period: 59.8% of all the deaths before age five. North America's rate is 3.6, East Asia & Pacific's 6.7 and the world's 17.2, 7.4 times the EU's. In 1990 the EU's rate was 6.4 and North America's 5.6.

Among countries of a million or more, Belarus (0.7), Estonia and Japan (both 0.9) are lowest; seven of the ten lowest are European.

Deaths of women from causes linked to pregnancy or childbirth are rarer in the EU than in any other region: an estimated 5 for every 100,000 live births in 2023. North America's rate is 16, more than three times as high; the Middle East & North Africa region's 47; the world's 197, 39 times the EU's.

These are modelled estimates by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies, published as whole numbers, so small gaps between places with low rates mean little. Over time the change is large. In 1985 the EU's rate was 28 and North America's 11. By 2023 the EU's had fallen by about four-fifths, to 5, while North America's estimate rose to 16.

In 2019, the last year in the World Bank's series, road crashes killed an estimated 5.6 people per 100,000 in the EU. North America's rate was 11.9, about twice as high, and the world's 16.7, three times. Europe & Central Asia, which includes the EU, was at 7.4.

The EU was already the lowest region in 2000, when the series starts, at 13.5. Since then its rate has fallen 58.6%; North America's fell 21.0% and the world's 12.3%. Among countries of a million or more, Norway and Singapore (both 2.1) are lowest, then Switzerland (2.2); nine of the 12 lowest, at 3.9 or less, are European.

The pattern holds for adults too. The World Health Organization estimates the chance that someone who reaches 30 dies before 70 from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease, the four main non-communicable diseases. In the EU in 2021 it was 12.1%, about one in eight, the lowest of any region. North America's was 13.3%, Latin America's 14.7% and the world's 18.3%. In 2000 the EU and North America were both at 17.5%, and for a decade they swapped places by fractions of a point; the EU has been lower every year since 2010, and the gap has widened.

Countries vary widely. Among EU members the chance runs from 7.8% in Luxembourg to 25.6% in Bulgaria. Thirty-six countries of a million or more are below the EU's average, and South Korea, at 6.9%, is lowest of the 158 with data.

Doctors and hospital beds give a more mixed picture. The EU had 4.2 doctors per 1,000 people in 2022, more than any other region; North America had 3.6 and the world 1.9. It had 5.1 hospital beds per 1,000, almost twice North America's 2.7, but on beds it isn't first: East Asia & Pacific reported 5.3 that year, up from 4.9 in 2021, and South Korea and Japan, with 12.8 and 12.6, have more beds than any EU country.