Countries with the highest maternal mortality ratios

Countries with the highest maternal mortality ratios is a live ranking of the top 50 entries in health and wellbeing by Maternal mortality ratio, built from public data published by Our World in Data. It was last refreshed on 2026-11-02. This is the first published snapshot; from the next refresh onwards the page will also show movers, new entries and a rank history chart.

Nigeria currently holds #1 with 992.83 per 100,000 live births. Chad is second with 747.54 per 100,000 live births, which puts the leader 33% ahead. South Sudan completes the top three with 691.82 per 100,000 live births. Together the top three account for about 38% of the combined top-10 total, which gives a quick sense of how concentrated this ranking is.

How it is measured: The number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births. Our World in Data chart "maternal-mortality-ratio-who-gho" (column maternal_mortality_ratio__per_100_000_live_births); most recent year per country within the last five years of data, regional aggregates excluded. Caveat: Years differ by country; the chart page documents the original source and its limitations. Data from Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0) and the sources it cites. The full top 50 is on this page, with positions 11 to 50 one click away, and each entry links to its own profile showing every ranking it appears in.

Use this page to check who is number one right now, compare any two entries head to head, or test yourself with the quiz, which asks you to name all ten in three minutes. Year-end archives are available for 2026, freezing the ranking as it stood at the close of each year. Top10Earth never estimates or edits a value: each number is fetched from its source, hashed, stored and ranked by software, then checked by a quality gate before it is published. If a refresh fails the gate, the previous snapshot stays live and the problem is reviewed by a person.