Children are much more likely to die during the first year of life than they are at older ages. Infant deaths can reflect underlying problems, such as barriers to accessing prenatal care, living in violent neighborhoods, or circumstances that challenge parents’ ability to adequately supervise their young children. They can also highlight inequities: for example, in access to health care or safe places to play, or exposure to environmental toxins. Among infants, the leading causes of death include congenital and chromosomal abnormalities, problems related to short gestation and low birthweight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website reports the infant mortality rate as the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
This indicator can be disaggregated by mother’s race/ethnicity. Subgroup data are from 2020. The included subgroups are non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native, non-Hispanic Asian, and non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander. Mother’s reported race was used for the subgroup calculations. Kochanek, K. D., Murphy, S. L., Xu, J., & Tejada-Vera, B. (2016). Deaths: Final data for 2014. National Vital Statistics Reports, 65(4). http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_04.pdf
Sources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. (2023). About Linked Birth / Infant Death Records, 2017-2020 Expanded. https://wonder.cdc.gov/lbd-current-expanded.html
Ely, D.M. & Driscoll, A.K. (2020). Infant mortality in the United States, 2018: Data from the period linked birth/infant death file. National Vital Statistics Reports, 69(7). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/NVSR-69-7-508.pdf