Historical dataset showing U.S. infant mortality rate by year from 1950 to 2025.

Mortality rate, infant, female (per 1,000 live births) in United States was reported at 5 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United States - Mortality rate, infant, female (per 1,000 live births) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on August of 2025.

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.

Mortality rate, infant, male (per 1,000 live births) in United States was reported at 5.9 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United States - Mortality rate, infant, male (per 1,000 live births) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

This statistic shows the 20 countries* with the highest infant mortality rate in 2024. An estimated 101.3 infants per 1,000 live births died in the first year of life in Afghanistan in 2024. Infant and child mortality Infant mortality usually refers to the death of children younger than one year. Child mortality, which is often used synonymously with infant mortality, is the death of children younger than five. Among the main causes are pneumonia, diarrhea – which causes dehydration – and infections in newborns, with malnutrition also posing a severe problem. As can be seen above, most countries with a high infant mortality rate are developing countries or emerging countries, most of which are located in Africa. Good health care and hygiene are crucial in reducing child mortality; among the countries with the lowest infant mortality rate are exclusively developed countries, whose inhabitants usually have access to clean water and comprehensive health care. Access to vaccinations, antibiotics and a balanced nutrition also help reducing child mortality in these regions. In some countries, infants are killed if they turn out to be of a certain gender. India, for example, is known as a country where a lot of girls are aborted or killed right after birth, as they are considered to be too expensive for poorer families, who traditionally have to pay a costly dowry on the girl’s wedding day. Interestingly, the global mortality rate among boys is higher than that for girls, which could be due to the fact that more male infants are actually born than female ones. Other theories include a stronger immune system in girls, or more premature births among boys.

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.

Number of infant deaths in United States was reported at 20317 deaths in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United States - Number of infant deaths - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on September of 2025.

The child mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of five, was 462.9 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that for every thousand babies born in 1800, over 46 percent did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just seven deaths per thousand births. Although the child mortality rate has decreased greatly over this 220 year period, there were two occasions where it increased; in the 1870s, as a result of the fourth cholera pandemic, smallpox outbreaks, and yellow fever, and in the late 1910s, due to the Spanish Flu pandemic.

Infant Mortality Rate for the United States was 5.50000 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Infant Mortality Rate for the United States reached a record high of 25.90000 in January of 1960 and a record low of 5.50000 in January of 2019. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Infant Mortality Rate for the United States - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on September of 2025.

NCHS - Infant and neonatal mortality rates: United States, 1915-2013

  Description

Rates are infants (under 1 year) and neonatal (under 28 days) deaths per 1,000 live births. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/mortality-trends/

  Dataset Details

Publisher: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Temporal Coverage: 1915/2013 Geographic Coverage: United States Last Modified: 2025-04-21 Contact: National Center for Health Statistics (cdcinfo@cdc.gov)… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/HHS-Official/nchs-infant-and-neonatal-mortality-rates-united-st.

United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Small States was 21.68430 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Small States reached a record high of 70.18687 in January of 1976 and a record low of 21.68430 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Small States - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on August of 2025.

United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Other Small States was 23.60151 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Other Small States reached a record high of 76.41761 in January of 1979 and a record low of 23.60151 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Other Small States - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on August of 2025.

From the mid-19th century until today, life expectancy at birth in the United States has roughly doubled, from 39.4 years in 1850 to 79.6 years in 2025. It is estimated that life expectancy in the U.S. began its upward trajectory in the 1880s, largely driven by the decline in infant and child mortality through factors such as vaccination programs, antibiotics, and other healthcare advancements. Improved food security and access to clean water, as well as general increases in living standards (such as better housing, education, and increased safety) also contributed to a rise in life expectancy across all age brackets. There were notable dips in life expectancy; with an eight year drop during the American Civil War in the 1860s, a seven year drop during the Spanish Flu empidemic in 1918, and a 2.5 year drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. There were also notable plateaus (and minor decreases) not due to major historical events, such as that of the 2010s, which has been attributed to a combination of factors such as unhealthy lifestyles, poor access to healthcare, poverty, and increased suicide rates, among others. However, despite the rate of progress slowing since the 1950s, most decades do see a general increase in the long term, and current UN projections predict that life expectancy at birth in the U.S. will increase by another nine years before the end of the century.

We conducted a systematic review/meta-analysis for epidemiologic evidence of the association between long-term criteria air pollution (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), coarse particulate matter (PM10), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO)) exposure and all-cause, respiratory, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) infant mortality. This dataset is associated with the following publications: Wilkie, A., A. Krajewski, F. Njie, K. Park, S. Zelasky, K. Rappazzo, and T. Luben. Long-term exposure to criteria air pollutants and infant mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH. Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS, 267: 114587, (2025). Luben, T., A. Wilkie, A. Krajewski, F. Njie, K. Park, S. Zelasky, and K. Rappazzo. Systematic Review of Short-term Air Pollution Exposure and Infant Mortality. Presented at International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) - North American Chapter, Corvallis, OR, USA, 06/19/2023 - 06/22/2023.

United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Low Income Countries was 42.80000 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Low Income Countries reached a record high of 170.30000 in January of 1964 and a record low of 42.80000 in January of 2023. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Infant Mortality Rate for Low Income Countries - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on September of 2025.

Japan had the highest life expectancy at birth of the G7 countries between 2000 and 2025, reaching **. On the other hand, life expectancy in the United States was ***** years, the only one of the seven where it was below 80. Life expectancy dropped in all G7 countries following the COVID-19 pandemic.

We conducted an unmatched case-control study of 1,225,285 infants from a North Carolina Birth Cohort (2003-2015). Ozone and PM2.5 during critical exposure periods (gestational weeks 3-8) were estimated using residential address and a national spatiotemporal model at census tract centroid. Here we describe data sources for outcome (i.e., congenital heart defects) and exposure (i.e., ozone and PM2.5) data. 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: The North Carolina Birth Cohort data are not publicly available as it contains personal identifiable information. Data may be requested through the NCDHHS, Division of Public Health with proper approvals. Air pollutant concentrations for ozone and PM2.5 from the national spatiotemporal model are publicly available from EPA's website. Format: Birth certificate data from the State Center for Health Statistics of the NC Department of Health and Human Services linked with data from the Birth Defects Monitoring Program (NC BDMP) to create a birth cohort of all infants born in NC between 2003-2015. The NC BDMP is an active surveillance system that follows NC births to obtain birth defect diagnoses up to 1 year after the date of birth as well as identify infant deaths during the first year of life and include relevant information from the death certificate. A national spatiotemporal model provided data on predicted ozone PM2.5 concentrations over critical prenatal and time periods. The prediction model used data from research and regulatory monitors as well as a large (>200) array of geographic covariates to create fine scale spatial and temporal predictions. The model has a cross-validated R2 of 0.89 for PM2.5. Concentrations were predicted for daily throughout the study period at the centroid of each 2010 census tract in NC. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Arogbokun, O., T. Luben, J. Stingone, L. Engel, C. Martin, and A. Olshan. Racial disparities in maternal exposure to ambient air pollution during pregnancy and prevalence of congenital heart defects. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 194(3): 709-721, (2025).

The mortality rate from influenza in the United States is by far highest among those aged 65 years and older. During the 2023-2024 flu season, the mortality rate from influenza for this age group was around 32.1 per 100,000 population. The burden of influenza The impact of influenza in the U.S. varies from season to season, but in the 2023-2024 flu season, there were an estimated 40 million cases. These cases resulted in around 470,000 hospitalizations. Although most people recover from influenza without requiring medical treatment, the disease can be deadly for young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems or chronic illnesses. During the 2023-2024 flu season, around 28,000 people in the U.S. lost their lives due to influenza. Impact of vaccinations The most effective way to prevent influenza is to receive an annual vaccination at the beginning of flu season. Flu vaccines are safe and can greatly reduce the burden of the disease. During the 2022-2023 flu season, vaccinations prevented around 2,479 deaths among those aged 65 years and older. Although flu vaccines are usually cheap and easily accessible, every year a large share of the population in the U.S. still does not get vaccinated. For example, during the 2022-2023 flu season, only about 35 percent of those aged 18 to 49 years received a flu vaccination.

Between the beginning of January 2020 and June 14, 2023, of the 1,134,641 deaths caused by COVID-19 in the United States, around 307,169 had occurred among those aged 85 years and older. This statistic shows the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) deaths in the U.S. from January 2020 to June 2023, by age.

United States - Infant Mortality Rate for OECD Members was 5.75600 Number per 1,000 Live Births in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Infant Mortality Rate for OECD Members reached a record high of 48.52691 in January of 1963 and a record low of 5.71265 in January of 2022. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Infant Mortality Rate for OECD Members - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on September of 2025.