A recent article in The Atlantic looked at the infant mortality rate in the United States and why it appears so high in comparison to the rest of the world.
After all, the Untied States is one of the richest countries in the world with some of the most sophisticated medical care in the history of mankind. It seems a bit odd that the infant mortality rate is about 6.1 for every one thousand live births. That puts the Americans somewhere on par with the Poles and the Slovaks, incidentally.
As The Atlantic piece notes, a recent paper at the University of Chicago explains the numbers. About 40% of the difference between European and American infant mortality numbers comes from a difference in reporting babies born before the 24th week of gestation. In other words, Americans report births for premature deliveries that aren’t reported elsewhere.
The biggest difference, though, came from babies after the first 28 days of life. In particular, the paper shows that infant mortality for white children is comparable to European data. Infant mortality among non-white children, from predominantly lower socio-economic circumstances, is much higher and therefore the overall American infant mortality rate is higher than in Europe.
So what about Newfoundland and Labrador?
