Infant mortality, the death of children under the age of one year, is usually considered a yardstick for a country’s public health. Its rate, calculated by the number of deaths per 1,000 live births, in the United States reached a new low in the past decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its report Tuesday.
The CDC noted there were 6.86 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005. This rate drastically dropped by 15 percent to 5.82 in 2014. The CDC said it analyzed data from the National Vital Statistics System to arrive at trends by race, state and causes.
The report found that the highest mortality rates were observed among infants of non-Hispanic black women and American Indian or Alaska Native women.
The largest declines among the Hispanic subgroups were seen among Cuban and Puerto Rican women, a drop of 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively. According to the analysis, over the last 10 years, the infant mortality rate for Asian or Pacific Islander women and non-Hispanic black women declined 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
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