Infant Mortality and American Indians/Alaska Natives

  • American Indian/Alaska Natives have almost twice the infant mortality rate as non-Hispanic whites.
  • American Indian/Alaska Native infants are 2.7 times more likely than non-Hispanic white infants to die from accidental deaths before the age of one year.
  • American Indian/Alaska Native infants are 50 percent more likely to die from complications related to low birthweight as compared to non-Hispanic white infants.
  • In 2019, American Indian/Alaska Native mothers were almost three times as likely to receive late or no prenatal care as compared to non-Hispanic white mothers.
  • American Indian/Alaska Native mothers are 70 percent more likely to smoke during pregnancy as compared to non-Hispanic white mothers.

Infant Mortality Rate

American Indian/Alaska Native*White*All RacesAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / White Ratio
8.24.65.81.8
Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, 2018

Source: CDC 2020. Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2018 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set. National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 2.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/NVSR-69-7-508.pdf [PDF 487KB]

Leading Causes of Infant Mortality

Cause of Death(By rank)# American Indian/Alaska Native DeathsAmerican Indian/Alaska Native Death Rate# White DeathsWhite Death RateAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / White Ratio
(1) Low-Birthweight45154.72,178111.31.4
(2) Congenital Malformations2792.81,21562.11.5
(3) Maternal Complications2392.858029.72.7
(4) Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)17--63532.5--
(5) Accidents (unintentional injuries)7--44622.8--
Infant deaths and mortality rates for the top 5 leading causes of death for African Americans, 2018 (Rates per 100,000 live births)

Source: CDC 2020. Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2018 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set. National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 4.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/NVSR-69-7-508.pdf [PDF 487KB]

Characteristics of Mother

American Indian/Alaska Native WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / White Ratio
63.782.80.8
Percentage of mothers who received prenatal care (first trimester), 2019

Source: CDC 2021. Births: Final Data for 2019 National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 13.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-02-508.pdf [PDF 1MB]

American Indian/Alaska Native WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / White Ratio
13.04.52.9
Percentage of mothers who received late or no prenatal care, 2019

Source: CDC 2021. Births: Final Data for 2019 National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 13.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-02-508.pdf [PDF 1MB]

American Indian/Alaska Native WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / White Ratio
14.68.81.7
Percentage of mothers who smoked during pregnancy, 2019

Source: CDC 2021. Births: Final Data for 2019 National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 13.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-02-508.pdf [PDF 1MB]

Age of MotherAmerican Indian/Alaska Native WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / White Ratio
Under 20 years8.58.51.0
20-24 years9.36.11.5
25-29 years7.44.71.6
30-34 years7.93.62.2
35-39 years7.54.11.8
40-54 years--5.6--
Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, 2018

Source: CDC 2020. Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2018 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set. National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 2.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/NVSR-69-7-508.pdf [PDF 487KB]

*All data in the above surveys relate to non-Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives and non-Hispanic whites.


Last Edited: 07/09/2021