While the infant mortality rate in the United States continues to hold steady, significant racial and ethnic differences persist.
In 2004, there were 6.78 Infant (under 1 year of age) deaths per 1,000 live births, little changed from the rate of 6.84 in 2003, according to the report released Wednesday.
The national infant mortality rate is defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live births. Among the African American babies, the rate is 13 per 1,000 live births. The number is more than twice the rate for the U.S. population as a whole.
For the three-year period from 2002 through 2004, there were significant differences in infant mortality rates by state, ranging from a rate of 10.32 in Mississippi to 4.68 in Vermont.
More strikingly, here and throughout the country, is the large racial disparity.
The United States ranked 28th in the world in infant mortality in 1998. This ranking is due in large part to disparities which continue to exist among various racial and ethnic groups in this country, particularly African Americans.
African-Americans, the mortality rate is nearly double that of the United States as a whole, with 9.3 deaths per 1,000 births.
While the health of infants in many countries is improving, babies born in the United States now face an increased risk of dying in the first year of life.
The CIA World Fact book estimates the infant mortality rate in the United States is now comparable to Croatia, Lithuania and Taiwan.
An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a new report.
American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.
The main causes of infant death in poor Southern regions included premature and low-weight births; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which is linked to parental smoking and unsafe sleeping positions as well as unknown causes; congenital defects; and, among poor black teenage mothers in particular, deaths from accidents and disease.
