A nation’s infant mortality rate (IMR) has long been widely understood to be an excellent indicator, not only of infant health, but of a people’s health and general well-being as well. Thus it is sobering news to read, in a recent report prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which is part of the Library of Congress, that the 2008 U.S. IMR ranks 31st out of 34 developed countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That puts the U.S. behind every European nation on the list (including the 6 formerly communist countries of Slovenia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia); Asian countries like South Korea, Japan and Israel; and the Australasian countries of Australia and New Zealand. Out of the 34 OECD countries, the U.S. IMR is better than that of only Chile, Mexico and Turkey.

These rank rankings are actually part of a long-term trend, with the U.S. dropping from 12th in 1960, to 19th in 1980, 30th in 2005 and 31st in 2008. At the same time, the U.S. IMR declined by almost 75% between 1960 and 2000 (from 26.0 to 6.9), but has been flat since 2000, declining by only 4% […]