Infant mortality increased 3 percent in 2022 from 2021, the first significant rise in decades, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The last significant increase in infant mortality rate occurred in 2002. Since 1995, U.S. infant mortality has generally trended downward, the agency’s researchers wrote.

The CDC recorded a slight increase in infant mortality rates in 2021, to 5.44 deaths per 100,000 births from 5.42 deaths in 2020.

In 2021, fewer than 20,000 infants died. In 2022, more than 20,500 infants died, with 5.61 deaths out of 100,000 live births.

The CDC report didn’t give a clear reason for the increase, saying that the top five reasons for infant mortality remained the same from 2021 to 2022.

“Any increase in infant mortality rates is a public health concern. Addressing the leading causes of infant deaths is critical to reducing infant mortality,” a CDC spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

The report was published in the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Reports on July 25.

Most Deaths in Preterm Babies

In 2022, 65 percent of infant deaths occurred in infants born prematurely, meaning they were born after less than 37 weeks of gestation. That’s the same as 2021, the report authors wrote.

Nevertheless, mortality rates increased both for babies born preterm and those born at term. Rates of both neonatal and postnatal deaths rose in 2022. Neonatal deaths are those that occur in infants under 28 days old, while postnatal deaths are those that occur within a year of birth.

Just like in 2021, in 2022, the five leading causes of infant deaths were congenital malformations, disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), unintentional injuries, and maternal complications, according to the report.

The researchers observed an increase in the incidence rate of all five causes. However, only the increase in maternal complications was statistically significant.

Prior research not conducted by the CDC shows that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among highly developed countries.

The analysis showed that the United States had a maternal mortality rate of 22 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022—often more than doubling or even tripling the rates of other highly developed countries.

The new CDC report also found that the overall mortality rate increased for infants born to American Indian or Alaska Native, white, and Dominican women in 2022, while other racial and ethnic groups didn’t see significant increases from 2021 to 2022.

Infants born to black women had the highest mortality rate at 10.90 per 1,000 live births in 2022.

Death Rates by State

“By state, infant mortality ranged from a low of 3.32 infant deaths per 1,000 births in Massachusetts to a high of 9.11 in Mississippi,” the authors wrote.

Twelve states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington—had infant mortality rates significantly lower than the 2022 national infant mortality rate of 5.61 per 100,000 live births.