evidence: - Neonatal deaths have decreased by 44% since 2000. Yet in 2022, nearly half (47%) of all deaths in children under 5 years of age occurred in the newborn period (the first 28 days of life), which is among the most vulnerable periods of life and requires intensified quality intrapartum and newborn care. [...] Globally 2.3 million children died in the first 20 days of life in 2022. There are approximately 6500 newborn deaths every day, amounting to 47% of all child deaths under the age of 5 years. [...] Children continue to face different chances of survival based on where they are born, with sub-Saharan Africa and southern and central Asia bearing the heaviest burden for newborn deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest neonatal mortality rate in 2022 at 27 deaths per 1000 live births, followed by central and southern Asia with 21 deaths per 1000 live births. In sub-Saharan Africa the risk of death in the first month of life is 11 times higher than that in the lowest-mortality region, Australia and New Zealand. At country level, NMRs in 2022 ranged from 0.7 death per 1000 live births to 39.4 deaths per 1000 live births, and the risk of dying before the 28th day of life for a child born in the highest-mortality country was about 60 times greater than in the lowest-mortality country.