Deep cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its potential dismantling under U.S. President Donald Trump could result in about 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to a study released in a prominent medical journal.
The report published Monday in The Lancet, which analyzed data from 133 low- and middle-income countries from 2001 to 2023, estimates that USAID-funded programs helped prevent more than 91 million deaths over the past two decades, including 30 million among children. If the cuts continue, researchers project 1.8 million excess deaths in 2025 alone, with a total of 14 million by 2030 — including 4.5 million children under the age of five.
"U.S. aid cuts — along with the probable ripple effects on other international donors — threaten to abruptly halt and reverse one of the most important periods of progress in human development,” the study said.
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