Infant Mortality Rate Rises by 3%

The National Center for Health Statistics released data on infant mortality for 2022. The infant mortality rate in the United States rose from 2021 to 2022. Roni Caryn Rabin of the New York Times reports on these findings (November 1, 2023): 

The infant mortality rate — defined as the number of babies who die before they are a year old for every 1,000 live births — [] increased by a statistically significant 3 percent last year, to 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, up from 5.44 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021 . . .

The mortality rate of babies who were between 4 weeks and a year old increased by 4 percent, while neonatal mortality rates — that of babies less than a month old — increased by 3 percent.

Rates increased significantly among both premature babies born before 37 weeks of gestation and those born extremely early, at less than 34 weeks of gestation.

Overall, the statistically significant increases in mortality rates were seen only among male infants, whose survival rates have always been slightly lower than those among females.

Black infants have the highest mortality rate in the United States, rising slightly last year to 10.86 deaths per 1,000 live births, from 10.55 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021, an increase that was not statistically significant.

By contrast, the infant mortality rates of both white and Native American and Alaska Native babies increased by statistically significant amounts last year.