Introduction: Under-five mortality is an important indicator of countries’ developmental status. Higher proportions of child deaths occur in developing countries including Ethiopia. However, in Ethiopia where there is no continuous event registry and most information comes from the periodic surveys, it is not common to obtain information on the determinants of under-five mortality. To this effect the output in this analysis is based on the Ethiopian health and demographic survey 2011 aiming to put indicative potential policy perspectives on social determinants of under-five mortality in Ethiopia. Results: A total of 11,654 live births were extracted from fertility history of women of the reproductive age for the 5- year period preceding the year 2011 and a total of 846 deaths were identified. There was a high burden of under-five mortality (incidence rate ratio of 24.95 per 1000 person years) with the highest risk of death on the neonatal age. In multivariate analysis, males, children born from uneducated mothers and children living in developing and marginalized regions were conferred the highest risk of under-five deaths. Conclusion: Though Ethiopia has made tremendous progress in reducing child mortality, mortality is still high in developing and marginalized regions of the country and among children from uneducated mothers. There is a need to institute interventions targeting empowering women and filling regional inequalities in Ethiopia.

Under Five Mortality, Social Determinant, Policy Brief