US infant mortality rate declined 3% from 2019 to 2021, says new report

Black mothers are more than three times as likely to have infants that die as Asian women, and twice as likely as white women. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics has found infant mortality declined 3% from 2019 to 2021. However, the good news is tempered by large racial and economic disparities and the US’s poor ranking in infant and maternal health internationally.

Black and Native mothers are consistently more likely than white and Asian mothers to have infants who die in their first year of life, a statistic that mirrors disparities in maternal mortality.