Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Infant Mortality

Infant mortality refers to deaths during the first year of life. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the standard way of measuring infant deaths. Significant declines in infant mortality began in wealthy countries with the industrial revolution and have occurred since World War II in the developing world. These declines have significant implications for women's changing gender roles and status in the 21st century. Infant mortality is typically measured using the IMR. This is calculated by dividing the number of deaths to infants under age one by the number of live births in that population multiplied by 1,000. The IMR thus refers to the number of babies out of every 1,000 who die before reaching the age of 1.

Humans are the most fragile in the earliest stages of life. Because infant deaths are highest in the first weeks of life, infant mortality is often divided into several more specific measures. Neonatal mortality is the number of deaths (per live births, per 1,000 population) in the first 28 days of life. This can be further subdivided into early neonatal mortality (during the first week of life) and late neonatal mortality (deaths from 8 through 28 days). Postneonatal mortality refers to all infant deaths from 29 days through 1 year. (Thus, the neonatal mortality rate added to the postneonatal mortality rate is equal to the infant mortality rate.) Within wealthier countries in particular, variation in neonatal mortality is a good measure of quality of hospital care for young infants.

Because mortality is highest in the first year of life, infant mortality is the most sensitive measure of mortality. It is a good way of gauging differences in the quality of life between countries or between groups within a country.

Historical Change in Infant Mortality

Infant mortality rates dropped dramatically over the past several centuries. In the developed countries, significant declines in infant mortality began with the industrial revolution. In London, for example, some estimates indicate that in the early 1700s, nearly three-quarters of children died before the age of 5. Only a century later, this had fallen to less than a third. These declines continued throughout the 20th century. As an illustration, out of every 1,000 babies born in the United States today, more will survive to be 65 years old than survived to be 1 year old in 1900.

In developing countries, the declines in infant mortality were much more recent. Most of the change began with the exportation of Western sanitation, agricultural techniques, and medical technology after World War II. In 1950, the average infant mortality rate in less developed countries was 170.5. By 2000, it had dropped to 60.5, and it is predicted to decline to 17.2 by the middle of the 21st century. In some parts of the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the decline in infant mortality was slowed by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic.

Differential Mortality Rates

Just as infant mortality has changed and will continue to change over time, levels of infant mortality vary both between and within countries. When looking at international variation, poorer nations have much higher rates of infant mortality than do richer nations.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution