Infant Mortality and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders

Infant Health & Mortality

Infant Mortality and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders

While the overall infant mortality rate for Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders is comparable to the white population, disparities still exist among Pacific Islander sub-populations. Data from national surveillance reports is limited.

Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders have almost twice the infant mortality rate as compared to non-Hispanic whites in 2018.
In 2019, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander mothers were 4.6 times more likely to receive late or no prenatal care as compared to non-Hispanic white mothers.
According to CDC data, the infant mortality rate on the island of Guam was 2.5 times higher than that of non-Hispanic white infants born on the mainland of the United States, in 2018.

Infant Mortality Rate

**Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, 2018**
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander*	White*	All Races	Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander / White Ratio
9.4	4.6	5.8	2.0

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]

**Estimated infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, by territory, 2018**
Country/Territory	Infant Mortality Rate	Ratio vs. White
White (U.S. National)	4.6	--
Guam	11.7	2.5

Source: CDC 2020. Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2018 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set. National Vital Statistics Reports. Table 5.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/NVSR-69-7-508.pdf [PDF 487KB]

**Estimated infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, by territory, 2021**
Country/Territory	Infant Mortality Rate	Ratio vs. White
White (U.S. National; ethnicity not defined)	5.2	--
Guam	11.7	2.3
Marshall Islands	22.2	4.3
Northern Mariana Islands	12.8	2.5
Palau	>11.5	2.2
American Samoa	10.1	1.9
Federated States of Micronesia	22.5	4.3

Source: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 2021. The World Factbook 2021.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/infant-mortality-rate/

Leading Causes of Infant Mortality

National data not available at this time.

Characteristics of Mother

**Percentage of mothers who received prenatal care (first trimester), 2019**
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	White	Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander / White Ratio
50.0	82.8	0.6

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]

**Percentage of mothers who received late or no prenatal care, 2019**
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	White	Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander / White Ratio
20.5	4.5	4.6

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]

**Percentage of mothers who smoked during pregnancy, 2019**
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	White	Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander / White Ratio
3.3	8.8	0.4

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]

*All data in the above surveys relate to non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and non-Hispanic whites.

Percentage of mothers who received late or no prenatal care, 2014**
Race of Mother	Percent	Ratio vs. White
White	4.3	--
Total Asian	5.7	1.3
Filipino	3.7	0.9
Native Hawaiian	8.8	2.0
Other Asian or Pacific Islander	6.8	1.6

Source: Child Trends Databank, 2019.
https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/late-or-no-prenatal-care/

** More recent data is not available from CDC at this time

Last Modified: 7/9/2021 10:08:00 AM

Office of Minority Health

Infant Mortality and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders

Infant Mortality Rate

Leading Causes of Infant Mortality

Characteristics of Mother

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