ABSTRACT
Between 1970-2 and 2000-2, the death rate (all causes) for boys in England and Wales aged 0-4 years fell from 4.6 per thousand to 1.4 per thousand; for boys aged 5-9 years it fell from 0.4 per thousand to 0.1 per thousand. The number of girls dying fell by roughly the same proportion over the same period (ONS 2007). The rate of accidental deaths among all children aged 0-14 in England and Wales fell from 18 per 100,000 in 1971 to 5 per 100,000 in 1995 (ONS 1997). It is clear that children’s lives are becoming safer by the year.
