Nearly all maternal deaths are preventable, yet globally a woman dies around every two minutes from maternal causes. Maternal mortality is the target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.1: to reduce maternal mortality to less than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births by 2030. The United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (UN MMEIG) – comprising the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank Group and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (UNDESA/Population Division) - has produced this set of global, regional and national estimates of maternal mortality in order to monitor progress towards meeting this SDG target and improving maternal health worldwide.

These estimates cover the period 2000 to 2020 and supersede all earlier sets of estimates previously published by the UN MMEIG. They represent the most up to date, internationally-comparable UN estimates of maternal mortality, using refined input data and methods from previous rounds.