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Infant Mortality Rate
The Infant Mortality Rate is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age per
1,000 live births. This measure is perhaps the most important and widely used indicator of
mortality among infants. Not only is the infant mortality rate a measure of deaths of
infants, it is also an excellent gauge for the overall health of a community, as it is
associated with a wide range of social and economic factors.
The infant mortality rate is calculated by dividing the number of deaths to infants under the
age of 365 days occurring in a year by the number of births occurring in that same year,
and multiplying by 1,000. There were 312 infant deaths and 36,672 live births in Arkansas
in 1999. The Infant Mortality Rate = (312 / 36,672) X 1,000 = 8.5 infant deaths per 1,000
live births. The infant mortality rate for the United States in 1999 was 7.1.
The map indicates that infant mortality varies across the state. Ouachita County had the
highest average infant mortality rate for the 1995-1999 period at 18.6. The counties with
the lowest average rates are excellent examples of the limitations of the data. Infant
mortality rates are based on a small number of cases, only about one percent of all live
births. These particular counties (Baxter, Cleburne, Cleveland, Montgomery) had no infant
deaths in the entire five-year period from 1994 through 1998. This results in very unstable
rates. Therefore, great care must be taken in drawing any conclusions based upon small
numbers, especially when comparing rates for individual counties.
One technique for dealing with the small numbers problem is to aggregate the data over
several years. Another technique is to add several counties together to form larger units.
The Public Health Regions are one such aggregation. For the 1995-1999 period, the infant
mortality rates ranged from a high of 11.1 in the Southeast region to a low of 7.3 in the
Northwest region.
Infant mortality rates vary tremendously by race. Between 1995 and 1999 the average
Arkansas rate was 14.4 for Blacks versus 7.5 for Whites.
The Arkansas infant mortality rate has not changed significantly from one year to the next
since 1995, with an average rate of 8.9. It must be cautioned that even when dealing with
data for the entire state, infant mortality rates are subject to considerable year-to-year
variation and what appear to be major changes may not be statistically significant.
Nationally, the infant mortality rate has experienced a long-term decline, dropping from
29.2 in 1950 to 7.1 in 1999.
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