Infant mortality has increased in France in the last decade, notes INSEE – Liberation

France is one of the countries of the European Union, the least classified in this area. The infant mortality rate in France continues to increase, with 2,700 children of less than a year deceased in 2024, according to an INSEE study published Thursday, April 10. Since 2011, this infant mortality rate has « Slightly increased », Going from 3.5 deaths for 1,000 children born living at 4.1 per 1,000 in 2024, specifies the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

«  »This means that a in 250 child dies before his first birthday»»develops INSEE. « A quarter of these deaths take place on the day of birth, half between 1 and 27 days of life, a quarter in the post-neonatal period, which occurs from 28 days to less than a year ».

In detail, boys, who have a higher risk of complications at birth and who are more affected by genetic diseases than girls, are at risk 1.2 times more than the latter to die before the age of one. Children from multiple delivery, such as twins or triplets, are more likely to die before the age of a year than other children.

THE « Risk is also higher for very young or very old mothers, employees, workers, inactive »,, Add the INSEE. On the other hand, it is « Weaker for mothers aged 26 to 37 ». The infant mortality rate is also higher in overseas departments than metropolitan, « Poverty being more widespread, which can influence the health of the child » and women knowing « More health problems ».

For INSEE, « Progress of medicine »which allowed children who would have been still stillborn, and therefore not counted in living births, « To survive for a few hours or days after birth, have been able to have a slight impact on the increase in infant mortality since 2011 ».

Since 2015, the infant mortality rate in France has been higher than the European Union average: in 2023, it reached 3.3 per 1,000 on average in the EU, against 4 per thousand in France, according to INSEE. In 2022, France ranked 23 in the 27 states of the European Union in terms of infant mortality, according to a study by the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) published in March.

Faced with this continuous trend, the Minister of Health Catherine Vautrin announced on Monday her wish to « Create a national infant mortality registerIn order to know « Precisely the causes » of this increase.