The rate of child deaths in the United States is climbing and America has the highest rate of youth mortality in the world.
Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University examined CDC mortality data for the US and data from the Human Mortality Database (HMD) of 16 ‘comparison countries’ between 1999 to 2019 – and 2020 to 2022 where available.
They included deaths of children from younger than one years old to 19 years old.
The study found between 1999 and 2019 there was an excess of 413,950 deaths in the US of kids aged zero to 19 years old – an average of 19,710 deaths per year and the highest among the countries included.
And deaths among 15- to 19-year-olds rose nearly 10 percent from 2009 to 2019.
Researchers attributed America’s higher death rates to easier access to guns and the rise in the use of illicit drugs like opioids.
