U.S. Infant Mortality Drops to Record Low of 5.4 per
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- U.S. infant mortality fell to just under 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2025, a new all-time low per CDC preliminary data — down from 5.5 in 2024 and 5.6 in the two prior years.
- CDC provisional data shows total infant deaths dropped to roughly 19,350 in 2025, compared with about 20,050 in 2024 and 20,160 in 2023.
- Racial disparities persisted in 2024, with Black women's infants dying at more than double the rate of Hispanic, white, and Asian American women's infants, per the CDC.
- Mississippi posted the nation's highest rate at 9.65 per 1,000 births, while New Hampshire had the lowest at just under 3 per 1,000.
- The U.S. rate remains nearly twice as high as peer democracies such as Italy, Japan, Spain, and Sweden, according to a study of 2022 figures cited in the report.
- March of Dimes chief medical officer Dr. Michael Warren attributed recent gains partly to 2023 RSV prevention measures — a lab-made antibody shot for infants and an RSV vaccine for pregnant women at 32–36 weeks — and to expanded safe-sleep education that may have cut sudden infant death syndrome cases.
Why it matters: The decline translates to hundreds fewer infant deaths per year, but the U.S. rate is still nearly twice that of comparable nations, and Black mothers' infants die at more than twice the rate of white, Hispanic, and Asian American infants — meaning the aggregate progress masks entrenched racial and geographic inequity that experts tie to poverty, prenatal-care gaps, and policy differences.
