Quick Stats for the United States
· Every 8 seconds a baby is born in the United States.
· Every hour 3 babies die.
· African American infants are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as white infants.
· Birth defects are the leading cause of infant mortality.
· More than one in five infant deaths is due to birth defects.
· Every 3½ minutes a baby is born with a birth defect.*
· Each year 2,500 babies are born with birth defects of the brain and spinal cord.
· Every 2 minutes a low birthweight baby is born.
· Every year more than 4,200 babies are born weighing less than 1 pound.
· Every minute a baby is born to a teen mother.
· Each day 410 babies are born to mothers who started prenatal care in the 3rd trimester or received no prenatal care at all.
· More than 1 in 9 infants is born preterm (less than 37 weeks gestation).
· The US infant mortality rate is higher than 25 other nations.
Based on 1998 final data from the National Center for Health Statistics and *estimates from the CDC
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