Black Infant Mortality Rate More Than Double That Of White Infants: Report

Photo: Getty Images Though infant mortality rates remained the same from 2022 to 2023, racial and ethnic disparities still persisted, ABC News reports. On Thursday (November 14), a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) revealed that Black infants are still dying at much higher rates than their white and Asian counterparts. The disparity persisted despite the U.S. provisional infant mortality rate remaining unchanged from 2022 to 2023 at 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. According to CDC data, infants born to Black mothers died at a rate of 10.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which was more than double the rate of the 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births among white infants and 3.4 deaths per 1,000 live births for Asians. Infants born to American Indian and Alaska Native, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and Hispanic women also died at higher rates than their white and Asian counterparts. Dr. Kirsten Bechtel, an expert on infant mortality, said the reason why racial disparities continue to persist is “the $100 million question.” “One of things that’s great about this data is that it helps us work backward. It’s like the canary...