Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000)
Infant mortality (i.e., infant deaths that occur within the first year of life) is a key indicator of health worldwide, reflecting the health not only of infants but of the entire population. Infant mortality is also an indicator of pregnant women’s access to high quality primary care.1 The U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than those in most other developed countries, and the gap between the U.S. infant mortality rate and the rates for the countries with the lowest infant mortality appears to be widening.2
What is the infant mortality rate?
The Report Card benchmark is the Healthy People 2010 goal of no more than 4.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births [Healthy People 2010 Objective 16-1c].
| State | State Overall Data | State Grade | State Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 9.1 | F | 48 |
| Alaska | 6.5 | S- | 25 |
| Arizona | 6.6 | U | 26 |
| Arkansas | 8.2 | F | 42 |
| California | 5.2 | S- | 5 |
| Colorado | 6.1 | S- | 17 |
| Connecticut | 5.8 | S- | 11 |
| Delaware | 8.6 | F | 45 |
| District of Columbia | 12.6 | F | 51 |
| Florida | 7.2 | U | 28 |
| Georgia | 8.2 | F | 42 |
| Hawaii | 6.1 | S- | 17 |
| Idaho | 6.3 | S- | 21 |
| Illinois | 7.4 | U | 32 |
| Indiana | 7.9 | U | 39 |
| Iowa | 5.2 | S- | 5 |
| Kansas | 7.3 | U | 29 |
| Kentucky | 7.0 | U | 27 |
| Louisiana | 10.0 | F | 49 |
| Maine | 6.3 | S- | 21 |
| Maryland | 7.9 | U | 39 |
| Massachusetts | 4.9 | S- | 1 |
| Michigan | 7.6 | U | 36 |
| Minnesota | 5.0 | S- | 2 |
| Mississippi | 10.6 | F | 50 |
| Missouri | 7.5 | U | 35 |
| Montana | 6.0 | S- | 15 |
| Nebraska | 5.9 | S- | 12 |
| Nevada | 6.2 | S- | 20 |
| New Hampshire | 5.6 | S- | 9 |
| New Jersey | 5.4 | S- | 7 |
| New Mexico | 6.1 | S- | 17 |
| New York | 5.9 | S- | 12 |
| North Carolina | 8.5 | F | 44 |
| North Dakota | 5.9 | S- | 12 |
| Ohio | 7.8 | U | 38 |
| Oklahoma | 8.0 | U | 41 |
| Oregon | 5.6 | S- | 9 |
| Pennsylvania | 7.4 | U | 32 |
| Rhode Island | 6.0 | S- | 15 |
| South Carolina | 9.0 | F | 47 |
| South Dakota | 7.3 | U | 29 |
| Tennessee | 8.7 | F | 46 |
| Texas | 6.3 | S- | 21 |
| Utah | 5.0 | S- | 2 |
| Vermont | 5.5 | S- | 8 |
| Virginia | 7.3 | U | 29 |
| Washington | 5.1 | S- | 4 |
| West Virginia | 7.6 | U | 36 |
| Wisconsin | 6.3 | S- | 21 |
| Wyoming | 7.4 | U | 32 |
Data Source: Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births), 2004-2006.
EXPLANATION: This measure is the number of deaths occurring to infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. Health Data Interactive. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hdi.htm.
Footnotes
1 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People 2010, 2nd ed. (Washington: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000), at 16-17, available at http://www.healthypeople.gov/Publications/.
2 MF MacDorman and T Mathews, National Center for Health Statistics, Recent Trends in Infant Mortality in the United States, (Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, October 2008), available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db09.pdf
