The ranking is based on 2007-18 data from birth and infant death records for 57 vital statistics jurisdictions designated through the CDC’s Vital Statistics Cooperative Program, part of the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics.
In 2018, the national infant mortality rate was 5.7 deaths per 1,000 births.
Here’s how each state and the District of Columbia stack up:
Note: The list includes ties. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- Mississippi — 8.41 deaths per 1,000 births
- Louisiana — 7.65
- Arkansas — 7.51
- District of Columbia — 7.38
- South Carolina — 7.11
- Oklahoma — 7.09
- Georgia — 7.05
- West Virginia — 6.96
- Alabama — 6.94
Ohio — 6.94 - Tennessee — 6.89
- Hawaii — 6.78
- North Carolina — 6.75
- Indiana — 6.72
- Illinois — 6.55
- Vermont — 6.44
- Kansas — 6.37
- Missouri — 6.35
- Alaska — 6.25
- Michigan — 6.22
- Nevada — 6.14
- Wisconsin — 6.12
- Kentucky — 6.05
- Florida — 6.04
- Maryland — 6.02
- Pennsylvania — 5.94
- Delaware — 5.93
- South Dakota — 5.89
- Nebraska — 5.77
- Arizona — 5.71
- New Mexico — 5.69
- North Dakota — 5.64
- Virginia — 5.61
- Maine — 5.52
- Utah — 5.49
- Texas — 5.48
- Wyoming — 5.33
- Minnesota — 5.06
- Idaho — 5.05
- Iowa — 4.98
- Rhode Island — 4.95
- Montana — 4.78
- Colorado — 4.75
- Washington — 4.69
- New York — 4.33
- Oregon — 4.22
- California — 4.21
- Connecticut — 4.2
- Massachusetts — 4.18
- New Jersey — 3.8
- New Hampshire — 3.5
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