The infant mortality rate in France, one of the worst-ranked European Union countries in this regard, continues to rise, with 2,700 children under the age of one expected to die in 2024, according to an INSEE study published Thursday.
Since 2011, this infant mortality rate has "increased slightly," rising from 3.5 deaths per 1,000 live births to 4.1 per thousand in 2024, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.
"This means that one in 250 children dies before their first birthday," explains INSEE. "A quarter of these deaths occur on the day of birth, half between 1 and 27 days of life, and a quarter in the post-neonatal period, which occurs between 28 days and less than a year."
In detail, boys, who have a higher risk of complications at birth and are more affected by genetic diseases than girls, are 1.2 times more likely than girls to die before the age of one.
Children born from multiple births, such as twins or triplets, are five times more likely to die before the age of one than other children.
The "risk is also higher for very young or very old mothers, employees, workers, and the inactive," adds INSEE. On the other hand, it is "lower for mothers aged 26 to 37."
The infant mortality rate is also higher in overseas departments than in mainland France, "where poverty is more widespread, which can affect children's health" and where women experience "more health problems."
According to the INSEE, "advances in medicine," which have allowed children who would previously have been stillborn, and therefore not counted among live births, "to survive for a few hours or days after birth, may have had a slight impact on the rise 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 thousand on average in the EU, compared to 4 per thousand in France, according to INSEE.
In 2022, France ranked 23rd out of the 27 European Union states in terms of infant mortality, according to a study by the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) published in March.
Faced with this continuing trend, Health Minister Catherine Vautrin announced on Monday her desire to "create a national register of infant mortality" in order to understand "the precise causes" of this increase.
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