Infant mortality is defined as death occurring during the first year of life and is an important summary reflecting social, political, health care delivery and medical outcomes in a geographic area. Infant deaths can be further classified into neonatal (0-27 days) and postneonatal (28 days-under 1 year) periods. Neonatal mortality is typically associated with events surrounding the prenatal period and the delivery, whereas postneonatal deaths are more likely to be associated with conditions or events that arise after the delivery and may reflect environmental factors. Other measures of mortality associated with infant health provided on PeriStats include late fetal mortality (28 or more weeks of gestation) and perinatal mortality (fetal deaths of 28 or more weeks gestation and infant deaths in the first 7 days of life). PeriStats also provides data on maternal mortality, reflecting deaths occurring during pregnancy, childbirth or the postpartum period.
Last updated:
February 2020
Search PubMed literature for recent research articles
on
Mortality and Morbidity
Data for
In the United States in 2020, 19,607 infants died before reaching their first birthday, an infant mortality rate of 5.4 per 1,000 live births.
Between 2010 and 2020, the infant mortality rate in the United States declined more than 11%.
In 2020, 65.7% of infant deaths occurred in the neonatal period, and 34.3% occurred in the postneonatal period.
Some of the leading causes of infant death in the United States include the following: birth defects; prematurity/low birthweight; sudden infant death syndrome; maternal complications of pregnancy and respiratory distress syndrome.
In the United States in 2019, the rate of perinatal mortality was 5.6 per 1,000 live births and fetal deaths.
Notes: SIDS is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. RDS is Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Maternal Preg. Comp. stands for "Maternal Complications of Pregnancy." Cause of death for 1996-1998 is based on the Ninth Revision, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9); cause of death for after 1998 is based on the Tenth Revision, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).
Sources: National Center for Health Statistics, period linked birth/infant death data. Retrieved December 1, 2023, from www.marchofdimes.org/peristats.
Some of the leading causes of infant death in the United States include the following: birth defects; prematurity/low birthweight; sudden infant death syndrome; maternal complications of pregnancy and respiratory distress syndrome.