US infant mortality increased in 2022 for the first time in decades, CDC says

(CNN) — The infant mortality rate in the United States rose in 2022, the first jump in 20 years, according to data released Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 20,500 babies died in 2022 before the age of 1, final records show. Overall, there were 5.6 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births, a 3% increase from the year before.

Infant mortality in the US has been generally trending down since at least 1995, when consistent tracking started, but rates are still much higher in the US than they are in many peer nations. There have been some small upticks over that time, but 2022 was the first time there was a statistically significant increase since 2002, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Experts say that any increase is cause for concern.

“Infant health is one of the most important public health indicators that we have,” said Amanda Jean Stevenson, a demographer and assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, who was not involved with the new report but saw provisional data previously released by the CDC. “The fact that [infant mortality rates] are not continuing to decrease is a very big deal. Even flat infant mortality rates are not good. We need to see these numbers going down – and fast – because they ar...