Statistics

Overview

The final infant mortality rate in the United States for 2005 was 6.87 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the third leading cause of infant death for 2005 and the first leading cause of death among infants ages 1–12 months. A total of 2,230 SIDS deaths occurred in 2005. ^{1, 2}

The U.S. SIDS rate has declined significantly since the Back-to-Sleep Campaign was launched in 1994, with declines occurring in large part during the first several years of the campaign. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that the decline in SIDS since 1999 can be explained by increasing rates in sudden unexplained infant death (SUID), which includes deaths attributed to suffocation. In addition, terminology related to sudden infant death is not uniform in application. The SUID Initiative is an effort to improve inaccurate classifications of infant deaths. For more information, see Sudden, Unexplained Infant Death Initiative (SUIDI): Overview and SUIDI: Cause of Death Diagnosis.

Chart 1. Infant Mortality* and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, 1983–-2005

* Infant mortality includes deaths from birth to age 1, as distinguished from posteonatal mortality (reported in Table 3), which includes deaths from age 1 month to age 1 year.

Click here to view data table and sources for this chart.

Disparities

The SIDS rate remains significantly higher among certain racial and ethnic groups, including non-Hispanic Blacks and American Indian/Alaska Natives (National Center for Health Statistics' (NCHS) linked birth/infant death data. See Chart 2 below.

More information on these disparities is found in "Recent Trends in Infant Mortality in the United States" which compares mortality rates for the years 2000–2005 and concludes that "the infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was 2.4 times the rate for non-Hispanic white women. Rates were also elevated for Puerto Rican and American Indian or Alaska Native women." (p. 1).

Chart 2. SIDS Deaths by Race and Ethnicity, 1995–2005

* All White for 1995 and 1996; Non-Hispanic white for the period 1997–2005. ** All Black for 1995-2001; Non-Hispanic black for the period 2002–2005. *** Includes Alaska Natives for period 1999–2005.

Click here to view data table and sources for this chart.

International

Compared to rates in other developed countries, the U.S. SIDS rate remains high. For example, in 2005, the US. rate ranked second highest (after New Zealand) among 13 countries in a research study by Fern Hauck and Kawai Tanabe³. The lowest SIDS rates among these countries were in the Netherlands and Japan.

It is important to note that the age of inclusion for SIDS varies from country to country, with some countries defining SIDS as occurring from age 1 week to age 1 year, while others use a range from birth to age 1 year or another range. The authors state that it is likely to be a small effect because the number of SIDS deaths occurring in the first week of life and after age 1 year are very small.

Since SUID rates are not provided in these research findings, it is also unclear whether those rates may have increased as the SIDS rates declined (as has happened in the United States in recent years).

The decline in the SIDS rate in all of these countries is reflected in the overall decline in postneonatal mortality, and, as with the United States, higher rates of these declines occurred earlier in the risk-reduction campaigns in those respective countries.

Chart 3. International SIDS Rates, Ordered from Lowest to Highest SIDS Rate in 2005

Click here to view data table and sources for this chart.

Other Resources

Statistics on Infant Mortality

• From National Center for Health Statistics: Health Data Interactive Select Mortality and Life Expectancy to view tables of data from 1999 to 2004 on infant mortality by cause.

Heron, M. 2007. Deaths: Leading causes for 2004. National Vital Statistics Reports 56(5): 1-96.

Kung HC, Hoyert DL, Xu, J, Murphy SL. 2008. Deaths: Final data for 2005. National Vital Statistics Reports 56(10): 1-124.

MacDorman MF, Mathews TJ. 2008. Recent trends in infant mortality in the United States. NCHS data brief 9: 1-8.

MacDorman MF, Kirmeyer S. 2009. Fetal and perinatal mortality, United States, 2005. National Vital Statistics Reports 57(8): 1-20.

Mathews TJ, MacDorman MF. 2008. Infant mortality statistics from the 2005 period linked birth/infant death data set. National Vital Statistics Reports 57(2): 1-32.

Ventura SJ, Abma JC, Mosher WD. 2008. Estimated pregnancy rates by outcome for the United States, 1990-2004. National Vital Statistics Reports 56(15): 1-26.

• From NSIDRC: SIDS Deaths by Race and Ethnicity, 1995–2001
• From World Health Organization: World Health Organization Mortality Database: Tables Table 2 gives number of infant deaths by cause, sex, and age. Select a country and a year to view the data.

Statistics on Other Topics:

• Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) Fact Sheet developed by the National Child Death Review, gives information from CDC on reported incidence of SUDC.
• National Infant Sleep Position Study (NISP) Sleep position summary data (1992–2008) for all races and ethnic groups from the National Infant Sleep Position Study developed by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development to examine sleep practices and factors associated with adherence to the back-to-sleep recommendations,
• Peristats Developed by the March of Dimes Perinatal Data Center, the PeriStats Web site provides free access to U.S., state, county, and city maternal and infant health data.

References

¹  Kung HC, Hoyert DL, Xu, J, Murphy SL. 2008. Deaths: Final data for 2005. National Vital Statistics Reports 56(10): 1-124.

² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID): Sudden, Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) Initiative. Retrieved December 22, 2008 from http://www.cdc.gov/sids/suid.htm

³Hauck F, Tanabe K. 2008. International trends in sudden infant death syndrome: stabilization of rates requires further action. Pediatrics 122; 660-666.

Updated December 22, 2008

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