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Infant Mortality
About This Indicator
What Is Infant Mortality?
Deaths of babies before their first birthday, per 1,000 live births, from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Why Does It Matter?
It responds to nutrition, clean water, prenatal care, and medical care at once, making it one of the oldest measures of living conditions. In 1929 about one baby in fifteen died before age one; by 2000, about one in 145.
Can Politics Influence It?
Through Medicaid for pregnant women and through water and sanitation rules. Deaths attributed to sudden infant death syndrome fell more than half after 1994's federal Back to Sleep campaign urged laying babies on their backs.
Key Idea
Most of the fall came before 1950, as clean water, antibiotics, and fuller diets reached whole populations at once. Later gains have come mostly from caring for babies born early or small, one at a time and at great expense, so each step tends to come harder.
Scored: A Faster Fall or Slower Rise Ranks Better
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics. data.cdc.gov epev-k6ss to 2013; Health, United States table IMMort for 2014-2016; data.cdc.gov j7ym-uwqy from 2017, and jqwm-z2g9 for any newer year.
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