Sudden unexpected infant death drives widening Black-White mortality gap

A cross-sectional analysis published in JAMA Network Open reveals that sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) is the primary driver behind the widening mortality gap between Black and White infants in the United States. After nearly two decades of narrowing, the gap between infants born to non-Hispanic Black mothers and non-Hispanic White mothers has increased since 2020.

While preterm birth was previously considered the main explanation for this disparity, the study suggests it now accounts for a shrinking share of the gap. Researchers analyzed National Center for Health Statistics data from 2003 through 2024, covering over 57 million live births. The findings show that while the White infant mortality rate declined from 5.6 to 4.3 deaths per 1,000 live births between 2003 and 2024, the Black infant mortality rate rose from 13.2 to 10.7 during the same period, causing the absolute gap to widen to 6.4 by 2024.

Co-author Leslie Root, a demographer at the University of Colorado Boulder, characterized the findings as evidence of ‘an acute crisis right now in sudden unexplained infant death,’ noting that this category was previously assumed to be under control.