Since the 1950s, the disparity between Black and White Americans’ mortality rates has steadily improved. Yet, the Black-White mortality gap for infants in the United States has widened significantly over the same time period, according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study authors examined data regarding mortality rates in the United States from 1950 to 2019. Over the past seven decades, Black Americans’ average life expectancy has grown by 20.4 percent, from 60.5 years in the 1950s to 76 years in the 2010s. In comparison, White Americans’ average life expectancy has grown by 13 percent, from 69 years in the 1950s to 79.3 years in the 2010s.
While mortality rates for both Black and White infants has improved, the racial disparity in infant mortality has grown since the mid-twentieth century. During the 1950s, the mortality rate for Black infants was 92 percent higher than White infants. As of the 2010s, the disparity has grown to 115 percent, meaning Black infants are more than twice as likely to die than White infants.
According to the authors’ analysis, a total of 5 million excess deaths of Black Americans, including more than 500,000 infants, could have been avoided over the past seven decades if their mortality rates were equal to those of White Americans.
The research team included scholars from the National University of Colombia, the Yale School of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Harvard University.
