--- title: Infant Deaths Continue to Drop in the U.S. description: The latest national data show improvements in infant mortality, including new lows among groups with traditionally high rates canonical: https://time.com/4707909/infant-mortality-rate-death-decline/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-21T15:24:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:57:06.894Z article:section: Health og:title: Infant Deaths Continue to Drop in the U.S. og:description: The latest national data show improvements in infant mortality og:url: https://time.com/4707909/infant-mortality-rate-death-decline/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4af6c2a92ba30b00/6988bf39cf40a8b092c46e84/gettyimages-540730969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5632 og:image:height: 3168 og:image:alt: Baby boy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Infant Deaths Continue to Drop in the U.S. twitter:description: The latest national data show improvements in infant mortality twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4af6c2a92ba30b00/6988bf39cf40a8b092c46e84/gettyimages-540730969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Infant Deaths Continue to Drop in the U.S. > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 21, 2017 3:24 PM UTC  Stuart Ashley—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 21, 2017 3:24 PM UTC Government agencies have released some [good news for newborns](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db279.htm). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) found in a new analysis that the rate of infant mortality in the U.S. is continuing to decline, after reaching a high in 2005. Since then, rates of infant deaths have dropped by 15%, from 6.86 deaths per 1,000 births to 5.82 in 2014\. These declines were driven by record-low rates among Hispanic, Black and Asian populations. The biggest drops—by about 20%—were seen for the infants of Asian or Pacific Islander and Black mothers. Every racial subgroup, except for American Indian and Alaska Native people, experienced a decline. The infant mortality rate for [sudden infant death syndrome](http://time.com/4542358/aap-sids-infant-death-prevent-guidelines/?iid=sr-link8) (SIDS) dropped by 29%. And while birth defects remain the leading cause of infant death, followed by low birth weight, both saw declines from 2005 to 2014\. This encouraging trend suggests that efforts to help women get more prenatal care may be paying off. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4707909/infant-mortality-rate-death-decline/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4707909/infant-mortality-rate-death-decline/"},"headline":"Infant Deaths Continue to Drop in the U.S.","datePublished":"2017-03-21T15:24:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:57:06.894Z","description":"The latest national data show improvements in infant mortality, including new lows among groups with traditionally high rates","url":"https://time.com/4707909/infant-mortality-rate-death-decline/","keywords":["Public Health","Babies","Reproductive Health","health","infants"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4af6c2a92ba30b00/6988bf39cf40a8b092c46e84/gettyimages-540730969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4af6c2a92ba30b00/6988bf39cf40a8b092c46e84/gettyimages-540730969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Baby boy","caption":"Baby boy","creditText":"Stuart Ashley—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4707909/infant-mortality-rate-death-decline/","name":"Infant Deaths Continue to Drop in the U.S."}}]}] ```