Infant-Mortality Rate Hits New Low, C.D.C. Reports

By Ellen Flax

The infant-mortality rate for babies born in the United States dropped to a new low in 1989, 9.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported this month.

Although that figure is an improvement over the previous low of 10 deaths per 1,000 live births recorded in 1988, black babies are still far more likely to die before their first birthday than are white babies, the statistics show.

For white infants, the infant mortality rate in 1989 was 8.2 deaths for every 1,000 live births, an improvement over the 1988 rate of 8.5 per 1,000 births. For black babies, the outlook declined between 1988 and 1989, the study found. In 1988, 17.6 black infants died for every 1,000 births, rising to 17.7 deaths per...