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Infant Mortality and Hispanic Americans

  • Among Hispanic Americans, the infant mortality rate ranges from 3.8 per 1,000 live births for Cuban Americans to 5.6 per 1,000 live births for Puerto Ricans.
  • Puerto Ricans had a 20 percent higher infant mortality rate as compared to non-Hispanic whites in 2018.
  • Puerto Rican infants were 2.5 times as likely to die from causes related to maternal complications than non-Hispanic white infants in 2018.
  • In 2019, Hispanic mothers were 80 percent as likely to receive late or no prenatal care as compared to non-Hispanic white mothers.
  • In 2019, Central and South American mothers were 2.5 times as likely to receive late or no prenatal care as compared to non-Hispanic white mothers.

Infant Mortality Rate

Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, 2018
Race of Mother Infant Mortality Rate Ratio vs. White
White* 4.6 --
Total Hispanic 4.9 1.1
Mexican 4.9 1.1
Puerto Rican 5.6 1.2
Cuban 3.8 0.8
Central and South American 4.0 0.9

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

Infant deaths and mortality rates for the top 5 leading causes of death for Hispanics / Latinos, 2018 (Rates per 100,000 live births)
Cause of Death
(By rank)		 # Hispanic Deaths Hispanic Death Rate # White Deaths White Death Rate Hispanic / White Ratio
(1) Congenital Malformations 1,057 119.3 2,178 111.3 1.1
(2) Low-Birthweight 714 80.6 1,215 68.1 1.3
(3) Maternal Complications 336 37.9 446 22.8 1.7
(4) Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 202 22.8 635 32.5 0.7
(5) Accidents (unintentional injuries) 148 16.7 560 29.7 0.6

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]

Infant deaths and mortality rates for the top 5 leading causes of death for Mexican Americans, 2018 (Rates per 100,000 live births)
Cause of Death
(By rank)		 # Mexican Deaths Mexican Death Rate White Death Rate Mexican / White Ratio
(1) Congenital Malformations 593 119.3 111.3 1.1
(2) Low-Birthweight 399 80.5 62.1 1.3
(3) Maternal Complications 189 38.1 22.8 1.7
(4) Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 110 22.2 32.5 0.7
(5) Accidents (unintentional injuries) 88 17.8 29.7 0.6

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]

Infant deaths and mortality rates for the top 5 leading causes of death for Puerto Rican Americans, 2018 (Rates per 100,000 live births)
Cause of Death
(By rank)		 # Puerto Rican Deaths Puerto Rican Death Rate White Death Rate Puerto Rican / White Ratio
(1) Low-Birthweight 80 111.7 62.1 1.8
(2) Congenital Malformations 76 106.1 111.3 1.0
(3) Maternal Complications 41 57.3 22.8 2.5
(4) Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 23 32.1 32.5 1.0
(5) Accidents (unintentional injuries) 18 -- 29.7 --

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]

Infant deaths and mortality rates for the top 5 leading causes of death for Central and South Americans, 2018 (Rates per 100,000 live births)
Cause of Death
(By rank)		 # Central and South Deaths Central and South Death Rate White Death Rate Central and South / White Ratio
(1) Congenital Malformations 184 124.8 111.3 1.1
(2) Low-Birthweight 98 66.5 62.1 1.1
(3) Maternal Complications 43 29.2 22.8 1.3
(4) Accidents (unintentional injuries) 15 -- 29.7 --
(5) Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 16 -- 32.5 --

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

Percentage of mothers who received prenatal care (first trimester), 2019

Race of Mother Percent Ratio vs. White
White 82.8 --
Total Hispanic 72.1 0.9
Mexican 72.8 0.9
Puerto Rican 76.2 0.9
Cuban 81.5 1.0
Central and South American 66.1 0.8

Source: CDC 2021. Births: Final Data for 2019 National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 13 and 14.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-02-508.pdf [PDF 1.1MB]

Percentage of mothers who received late or no prenatal care, 2019
Race of Mother Percent Ratio vs. White
White 4.5 --
Total Hispanic 8.2 1.8
Mexican 7.8 1.7
Puerto Rican 6.2 1.4
Cuban 4.5 1.0
Central and South American 11.3 2.5

Source: CDC 2021. Births: Final Data for 2019 National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 13 and 14.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-02-508.pdf [PDF 1.1MB]

Percentage of mothers who smoked during pregnancy, 2019
Race of Mother Percent Ratio vs. White
White 8.8 --
Total Hispanic 1.5 0.2
Mexican 1.3 0.1
Puerto Rican 4.9 0.6
Cuban 2.0 0.2
Central and South American 0.4 0.05

Source: CDC 2021. Births: Final Data for 2019 National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 13 and 14.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-02-508.pdf [PDF 1.1MB]

Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, 2018
Age of Mother Hispanic White Hispanic / White Ratio
Under 20 years 6.4 8.5 0.8
20-24 years 5.1 6.1 0.8
25-29 years 4.4 4.7 0.9
30-34 years 4.4 3.6 1.2
35-39 years 4.9 4.1 1.2
40-54 years 6.3 5.6 1.7

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 whites.
Last Modified: 7/9/2021 10:58:00 AM

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