Black babies in the United States die at just over two times the rate of white babies in the first year of their life

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for every 1,000 live births, 4.8 white infants die in the first year of life. For black babies, that number is 11.7. The Hispanic infant mortality rate is 5.2. The majority of those black infants that die are born premature because black mothers have a higher risk of going into early labor.