The latest 2025 joint report from the United Nations, compiled by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank Group and UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, has painted a mixed picture of maternal mortality progress across the 14 CARICOM member states, documenting decades of broad gains but a concerning slowdown in improvements over the last eight years.
The 2023 estimates included in the report highlight dramatic disparities in lifetime risk of pregnancy-related death across the bloc, which brings together Caribbean nations to foster regional integration and cooperation. At the highest end of risk, Haiti faces a grim lifetime maternal mortality risk of 1 in 118, while Antigua and Barbuda boasts one of the lowest risks in the region at 1 in 2,108. Most CARICOM nations fall between these two extremes, with lifetime risks ranging from 1 in 500 to 1 in 2,100 – a better outcome than the global average lifetime risk of 1 in 272, and on par with the broader Latin America and Caribbean regional average of 1 in 789.
When tracking change across the 23-year period from 2000 to 2023, progress has been far from uniform across the bloc. Five nations – Suriname, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Dominica – have achieved remarkable gains, cutting their maternal mortality rates by 40% or more since 2000. Haiti and several other CARICOM nations have also recorded net reductions over the full 23-year timeline. However, the report identifies three notable outliers: Jamaica, The Bahamas, and Grenada, all of which saw higher maternal mortality levels in 2023 than they recorded in 2000.
Beyond the uneven national results, the data confirms a clear slowdown in maternal mortality reduction across the region over the most recent eight-year period, mirroring a broader trend across Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole. Between 2000 and 2023, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the smallest overall reduction in maternal mortality of any world region, at just 16.8%.
Even amid these challenges, the report notes a key bright spot: eight out of the 14 measured CARICOM countries have already hit the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target for maternal mortality, which calls for fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.