An article in JAMA discusses the newest federal data on US infant mortality in 2014 that can be viewed as a glass half full or a glass half empty. The good news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is that the 2014 infant mortality rate of 582 deaths per 100 000 live births—23 215 infant deaths—is a 2.3% decrease from the 2013 rate. It’s also the lowest recorded US infant mortality rate. The bad news is that the US infant mortality rate, which the CDC defines as death before 1 year of age, still far outstrips infant death rates in other developed countries, such as Finland and Iceland, both of which had a 2013 infant mortality rate of 180 deaths per 100 000 births.
Read more: US Infant Mortality Rate Declines but Still Exceeds Other Developed Countries. JAMA