I’ve been bothered for more than 15 years by the high infant mortality (6.5 per 1,000) reported for the U.S. The numbers (U.S. ranks 23rd down the list in infant mortality) belie the reality of our wealth and excellent health care.
The NIH spent over $100 million in Chicago in the 1980’s to reduce infant mortality and failed.
Now, thanks to the CDC (and the Wall Street Journal that found and published the data) we have the answer. More than a third of our infant mortality is due to premature infants’ deaths. Take a third off of our global infant mortality figures, include our geographic and ethnic diversity and we are right in the correct range of 4.3 deaths per thousand.