Malaria
Age-standardized death rate from Malaria across countries, with trends from 1990 to 2021.
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This page shows age-standardized death rates for malaria across 204 countries, sourced from the IHME Global Burden of Disease Study 2023 via Our World in Data. Age-standardized rates adjust for differences in age structure between populations, enabling fair comparisons across countries and over time. The data spans from 1990 to the latest available year.
Malaria mortality patterns are shaped by healthcare access, public health infrastructure, socioeconomic conditions, and disease-specific prevention and treatment programs. Explore regional breakdowns, country comparisons, and historical trends using the tools and pages linked below.
Malaria is a parasitic disease caused primarily by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, transmitted through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. The parasite invades red blood cells, triggering cyclical fevers, haemolytic anaemia, and — in severe cases — cerebral malaria, respiratory distress, and multi-organ failure. Children under five and pregnant women in endemic regions bear the heaviest mortality burden. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for approximately 95% of the world's 620,000 annual malaria deaths, with Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo together responsible for nearly 40% of the global toll. The disease has shaped human evolution itself, driving selection for sickle-cell trait and other haemoglobin variants that confer partial resistance. Between 2000 and 2015, scaled-up interventions — insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor residual spraying, rapid diagnostic tests, and artemisinin-based combination therapies — reduced malaria mortality by roughly 60%. However, progress has stalled since 2015, with rising insecticide resistance and climate-driven range expansion posing new threats.
Malaria prevention relies on vector control, chemoprevention, and vaccination. Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) remain the most cost-effective intervention, averting an estimated 68% of malaria cases prevented since 2000. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine protects children in the Sahel during peak transmission months. The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine (Mosquirix), recommended by the WHO in 2021, and the more effective R21/Matrix-M vaccine approved in 2023, represent breakthroughs in long-sought immunisation against the parasite.
Across the 92 countries tracked in this dataset, malaria accounts for an average of 2.9% of total deaths. The highest share is recorded in Sierra Leone at 13.4%, while Viet Nam records the lowest at 0.01%. These figures reflect the most recent available data and illustrate the vast geographic variation in malaria mortality burden.