| Â |
| Why Does the U.S. Have Such a High Infant Mortality Rate? |
| More recent large studies rank the USÂ as 50th in infant mortality. Source: The U.S. Infant Mortality Rate: International Comparisons, Underlying Factors, and Federal Programs (by Elayne J. Heisler, Congressional Research Service) (pdf) |
| MATT BEWIG - AllGov |
| A nation’s infant mortality rate (IMR) has long been widely understood to be an excellent indicator, not only of infant health, but of a people’s health and general well-being as well. Thus it is sobering news to read, in a recent report prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which is part of the Library of Congress, that the 2008 U.S. IMR ranks 31st out of 34 developed countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That puts the U.S. behind every European nation on the list (including the 6 formerly communist countries of Slovenia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia); Asian countries like South Korea, Japan and Israel; and the Australasian countries of Australia and New Zealand. Out of the 34 OECD countries, the U.S. IMR is better than that of only Chile, Mexico and Turkey. These rank rankings are actually ... |
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Comments: 2
Infant mortality rate: total: 14.6 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 15.18 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 14 deaths/1,000 live births (2011 est.)
The latest for the U.S:
Infant mortality rate: total: 6.06 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 6.72 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2011 est.)
Ours is bad, terrible. I wonder what it was before healthcare in public hospitals became free?
Ours on the other hand was falling nicely then jumped in 2006. It is now back to 2000 levels and falling.
Now, I can understand why ours is high, but canont see why the U.S. rate is so high.