Caution:
This site includes information about child deaths, which some readers may find distressing. If you need support, free and confidential help is available.
We wish to convey our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the infants, children and young people in NSW who have died. It is our foremost responsibility to learn from these deaths and to use that knowledge to make a difference.
Between 2022 and 2023, 632 children and young people in NSW died from natural causes – 346 in 2022 and 286 in 2023.
Infants under 1 year accounted for 395 deaths (63%).
Natural cause deaths result from disease, illness, or complications of early development. The main classifications include:
Findings collected
2009-2023
Page last updated
5 November 2025
In 2022 and 2023, natural causes accounted for 71% of all child deaths in NSW.
Infants under 1 year made up most of these deaths (395, or 63%), with an infant mortality rate of 2.1 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Children aged 1–17 years accounted for 237 deaths, a mortality rate of seven per 100,000 children.
Main causes:
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The infant mortality rate decreased by 37%, reaching its lowest level in 2023 (1.97 deaths per 1,000 infants).
For children aged 1–17, the rate declined by 21%.
Leading causes:
Mortality remains higher for male children, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and those in the most disadvantaged areas.
Across 15 years (2009-2023), certain groups remain at higher risk of death from natural causes:
The following issues were identified through recent reviews of natural cause deaths.
In 2022 and 2023, 6 children in NSW died from COVID-19 infection – 3 aged 0–2 years and 3 aged 13–17 years.
'Vaccine-preventable’ refers to the reduced risk of infection following immunisation, which can vary with age, immune response and virus strain.
In 2022 and 2023, 4 children died from vaccine-preventable diseases listed on the NSW Immunisation Schedule.
Between 2009 and 2023, 32 children died from vaccine-preventable diseases, mostly pneumococcal infection (18 deaths).
As of September 2024, 93.9% of children aged 5 in NSW were fully immunised, helping keep infection-related deaths low.
In 2016, the CDRT released a report commissioned from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) on child deaths in NSW from 2005 to 2014, focussing on recommendations to prevent or reduce deaths from vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs).
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition where the body’s response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. It can result from bacterial, viral or fungal infection.
In 2022 and 2023, 9 children died from sepsis – a threefold increase compared with 2020 and 2021. Another 11 children had sepsis recorded as a direct or antecedent cause, and 3 as a contributing condition. 6 deaths were due to Streptococcus group A infection.
In 2025, NSW Health updated the REACH program and Paediatric Observation Charts to improve early recognition and parental engagement. We continue to monitor sepsis-related deaths and the impact of these initiatives.
In 2022 and 2023, 11 children in NSW died where asthma was directly related to the cause of death. All had a pre-existing diagnosis and experienced a sudden onset of symptoms before death.
Read our detailed discussion in Chapter 9 of our Biennial Report 2022-2023
Between 2016 and 2019, we examined infant deaths from severe perinatal brain injury, including hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy.
A 2021 case review of 101 deaths found no single cause, but multiple, interrelated factors.
Common themes included:
A summary of these findings was published in the Biennial Report of the Deaths of Children in New South Wales: 2020 and 2021.
What we aim to understand
This follow-up review builds on the CDRT’s earlier study of perinatal deaths from severe brain injury in NSW.
It aims to understand the key contributory factors in these infant deaths, evaluate the adequacy of existing clinical practice guidelines and policies, identify prevention opportunities and make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
What the research involves
The study includes:
Why it matters
By identifying what has changed, and what still needs to improve, this review will help inform recommendations that strengthen perinatal care and safety for infants and their families across NSW.