The infant mortality gap between Black and white babies in the U.S. increased between 2020 and 2024, with sudden unexpected infant death identified as the largest single contributor to the disparity, according to a study published Sept. 22 in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers analyzed federal birth and infant death records covering nearly 58 million live births and 366,384 infant deaths from 2003 to 2024 to determine the factors behind the Black-white infant mortality gap.
Here are five things to know:
- About 3,400 U.S. infants died of sudden unexpected infant death in 2024, according to the CDC.
- Infant mortality rates fell to 10.7 and 4.3 deaths per 1,000 live births for Black and white infants in 2024, respectively, down from 13.2 and 5.6 in 2003.
The gap between the two groups narrowed from 7.7 to 6.0 deaths per 1,000 live births between 2003 and 2019. The gap then grew from 6.0 to 6.4 deaths by 2024, with Black infant mortality rising as white infant mortality fell. - Black and white infants were born preterm at rates of 16.9% and 10.5%, respectively, over the study period.
- Sudden unexpected infant death was the largest single contributor to the gap in 2024, at 1.56 deaths per 1,000 live births. From 2020 to 2024, its contribution to the infant mortality gap grew more than any other cause, accounting for 35% of the net change.
- “This study provides evidence that there is an acute crisis right now in sudden unexplained infant death, a category of cause of death that we assumed we got under control a long time ago,” Leslie Root, PhD, study co-author and assistant research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Behavioral Science, said in a Sept. 23 news release.
Read the full study here.
