maternal mortality ratio

The maternal mortality ratio is the number of maternal deaths during a given period per 100,000 live births in that same period. It is the headline measure of how dangerous it is to give birth in a place, and the World Health Organization describes it as showing the risk of maternal death relative to the number of live births.

The denominator matters. A ratio uses live births, not the number of women of childbearing age, so it answers the question a pregnant woman would actually ask: for every 100,000 babies born alive here, how many mothers died? The related maternal mortality rate uses a population of women instead, and gives a different and smaller number, which is why the two are not interchangeable.

The global ratio in 2023 was 197. In low income countries it averaged 346 and in high income countries 10. The Sustainable Development Goals set a target of a global ratio below 70 by 2030, and WHO's Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality strategy sets a national threshold of below 140, so a country can clear one bar while still sitting above the other.