In both 2021 and 2022, the children of Black mothers in the United States had the highest infant mortality rate, at almost 11 deaths per 1,000 live births. This statistic shows the infant mortality rate in the United States in 2021 and 2022 by the race and ethnicity of the mother.

In 2022, the infant mortality rate in the United States did not change in comparison to the previous year. The infant mortality rate remained at 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate refers to the number of infants who do not survive past the first year of life, expressed as a value per 1,000 births.Find more statistics on other topics about the United States with key insights such as total fertility rate, crude birth rate, and total life expectancy at birth.

Chart and table of the U.S. infant mortality rate from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

The infant mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of one (twelve months), was 60 deaths per thousand births in 1935. Approximately six percent of children born in 1935 did not survive past their first birthday. Over the course of the next 85 years, this number has dropped significantly, and the rate has reached its lowest point ever in the period between 2015 and 2020, at six deaths per thousand births. Figures have been below ten since the 1990s.

Infant Mortality Rate by Maternal Race/Ethnicity for New York City, 2007-2016 Counts of infant deaths (age <1 year) are based on NYC death certificates. The rate is calculated using the counts of infant deaths as the numerator and the count of live births from NYC birth certificates as the denominator.

In 2022, the infant mortality rate in the United States was 5.4 out of every 1,000 live births. This is a significant decrease from 1960, when infant mortality was at around 26 deaths out of every 1,000 live births. What is infant mortality? The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of babies under the age of one per 1,000 live births. There are many causes for infant mortality, which include birth defects, low birth weight, pregnancy complications, and sudden infant death syndrome. In order to decrease the high rates of infant mortality, there needs to be an increase in education and medicine so babies and mothers can receive the proper treatment needed. Maternal mortality is also related to infant mortality. If mothers can attend more prenatal visits and have more access to healthcare facilities, maternal mortality can decrease, and babies have a better chance of surviving in their first year. Worldwide infant mortality rates Infant mortality rates vary worldwide; however, some areas are more affected than others. Afghanistan suffered from the highest infant mortality rate in 2024, and the following 19 countries all came from Africa, with the exception of Pakistan. On the other hand, Slovenia had the lowest infant mortality rate that year. High infant mortality rates can be attributed to lack of sanitation, technological advancements, and proper natal care. In the United States, Massachusetts had the lowest infant mortality rate, while Mississippi had the highest in 2022. Overall, the number of neonatal and post neonatal deaths in the United States has been steadily decreasing since 1995.

This map shows the infant mortality rate and total number of infant deaths. This is shown by county, state, and country from the 2022 County Health Rankings. The national average is 5.7 deaths per 1,000.The data comes from the County Health Rankings 2022 layer. The County Health Rankings, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, measure the health of nearly all counties in the nation and rank them within states. "By ranking the health of nearly every county in the nation, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) illustrates how where we live affects how well and how long we live. CHR&R also shows what each of us can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work, and play – for everyone."Counties are ranked within their state on both health outcomes and health factors. Counties with a lower (better) health outcomes ranking than health factors ranking may see the health of their county decline in the future, as factors today can result in outcomes later. Conversely, counties with a lower (better) factors ranking than outcomes ranking may see the health of their county improve in the future.

The USA: Infant deaths per 1000 live births: The latest value from 2022 is 5 deaths per 1000 live births, unchanged from 5 deaths per 1000 live births in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 19 deaths per 1000 live births, based on data from 187 countries. Historically, the average for the USA from 1960 to 2022 is 12 deaths per 1000 live births. The minimum value, 5 deaths per 1000 live births, was reached in 2021 while the maximum of 26 deaths per 1000 live births was recorded in 1960.

The Mortality - Infant Deaths (from Linked Birth / Infant Death Records) online databases on CDC WONDER provide counts and rates for deaths of children under 1 year of age, occuring within the United States to U.S. residents. Information from death certificates has been linked to corresponding birth certificates. Data are available by county of mother's residence, child's age, underlying cause of death, sex, birth weight, birth plurality, birth order, gestational age at birth, period of prenatal care, maternal race and ethnicity, maternal age, maternal education and marital status. Data are available since 1995. The data are produced by the National Center for Health Statistics.

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All birth data by race before 1980 are based on race of the child; starting in 1980, birth data by race are based on race of the mother. Birth data are used to calculate infant mortality rate.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/mortality-trends/

All birth data by race before 1980 are based on race of the child; starting in 1980, birth data by race are based on race of the mother. Birth data are used to calculate infant mortality rate.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/mortality-trends/

The leading causes of infant death in the United States are congenital malformations, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome. In 2023, congenital malformations accounted for around 20 percent of all infant deaths in the United States. Infant mortality in the United States Infant mortality refers to the death of a child under the age of one. In the United States, there were around 20,577 infant deaths in 2022. However, the infant mortality rate in the United States has decreased steadily over the past few decades. In 1990, the infant mortality rate was 9.4 per 1,000 live births, but had dropped to around 5.4 per 1,000 live births by 2022. Rates of infant mortality do vary depending on the state and region. For example, the infant mortality rate in Mississippi in 2022 was 9.11 per 1,000 live births, compared to a rate of just 3.32 per 1,000 live births in Massachusetts. What is sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)? Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the third leading cause of infant death in the United States with a rate of around 40 deaths per 100,000 live births. SIDS is the unexplained death of an infant. In such cases, the baby usually seems to be healthy but suddenly dies, often during sleep. The cause of SIDS is unknown, but may be connected to problems in the brain controlling breathing and waking from sleep. In 2022, there were an estimated 1,531 deaths from SIDS in the United States. Mississippi and Arkansas are the states with the highest rates of sudden unexpected infant death, while Massachusetts and California have the lowest rates.

United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 5.600 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5.700 Ratio for 2015. United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 10.000 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 25.900 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 5.600 Ratio in 2016. United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted Average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 6.000 Ratio in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 6.200 Ratio for 2015. United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 6.800 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2017, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 10.400 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 6.000 Ratio in 2017. United States US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate, male is the number of male infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 male live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

This is a source dataset for a Let's Get Healthy California indicator at https://letsgethealthy.ca.gov/. Infant Mortality is defined as the number of deaths in infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births. Infant mortality is often used as an indicator to measure the health and well-being of a community, because factors affecting the health of entire populations can also impact the mortality rate of infants. Although California’s infant mortality rate is better than the national average, there are significant disparities, with African American babies dying at more than twice the rate of other groups. Data are from the Birth Cohort Files. The infant mortality indicator computed from the birth cohort file comprises birth certificate information on all births that occur in a calendar year (denominator) plus death certificate information linked to the birth certificate for those infants who were born in that year but subsequently died within 12 months of birth (numerator). Studies of infant mortality that are based on information from death certificates alone have been found to underestimate infant death rates for infants of all race/ethnic groups and especially for certain race/ethnic groups, due to problems such as confusion about event registration requirements, incomplete data, and transfers of newborns from one facility to another for medical care. Note there is a separate data table "Infant Mortality by Race/Ethnicity" which is based on death records only, which is more timely but less accurate than the Birth Cohort File. Single year shown to provide state-level data and county totals for the most recent year. Numerator: Infants deaths (under age 1 year). Denominator: Live births occurring to California state residents. Multiple years aggregated to allow for stratification at the county level. For this indicator, race/ethnicity is based on the birth certificate information, which records the race/ethnicity of the mother. The mother can “decline to state”; this is considered to be a valid response. These responses are not displayed on the indicator visualization.

Forecast: Female Infant Mortality Rate in the US 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Forecast: Total Infant Mortality Rates in the US 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Forecast: Infant Mortality Rate in the US 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

The average for 2021 based on 12 countries was 14 deaths per 1000 live births. The highest value was in Guyana: 23 deaths per 1000 live births and the lowest value was in Chile: 6 deaths per 1000 live births. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Infant mortality was defined as death before completion of first year of life [1]. We obtained linked birth and infant death data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the years 2000–2005, corresponding to the time frame covered by the EQI.

The EQI was constructed for 2000-2005 for all US counties and is composed of five domains (air, water, built, land, and sociodemographic), each composed of variables to represent the environmental quality of that domain. Domain-specific EQIs were developed using principal components analysis (PCA) to reduce these variables within each domain while the overall EQI was constructed from a second PCA from these individual domains (L. C. Messer et al., 2014). To account for differences in environment across rural and urban counties, the overall and domain-specific EQIs were stratified by rural urban continuum codes (RUCCs) (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2015). This dataset is not publicly accessible because: EPA cannot release personally identifiable information regarding living individuals, according to the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This dataset contains information about human research subjects. Because there is potential to identify individual participants and disclose personal information, either alone or in combination with other datasets, individual level data are not appropriate to post for public access. Restricted access may be granted to authorized persons by contacting the party listed. It can be accessed through the following means: Human health data are not available publicly. EQI data are available at: https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/NHEERL/EQI. Format: Data are stored as csv files.

This dataset is associated with the following publication: Patel, A., J. Jagai, L. Messer, C. Gray, K. Rappazzo, S. DeflorioBarker, and D. Lobdell. Associations between environmental quality and infant mortality in the United States, 2000-2005. Archives of Public Health. BioMed Central Ltd, London, UK, 76(60): 1, (2018).

This data collection consists of two data files, which can be used to determine infant mortality rates. The first file provides linked records of live births and deaths of children born in the United States in 1988 (residents and nonresidents). This file is referred to as the "numerator" file. The second file consists of live births in the United States in 1988 and is referred to as the "denominator" file. Variables include year of birth, state and county of birth, characteristics of the infant (age, sex, race, birth weight, gestation), characteristics of the mother (origin, race, age, education, marital status, state of birth), characteristics of the father (origin, race, age, education), pregnancy items (prenatal care, live births), and medical data.