2023-06-14 15:18:15
On average, in 2021, 3.7 out of 1000 French children died before their first birthday. A value higher than those of our neighbours, which also hides strong differences within France.
It’s a scenario that haunts parents: losing their child, a few days, weeks or months following birth. In France, in 2021, however, 2,700 children lost their lives less than a year following their birth, as noted by an INSEE report published on Wednesday. Two statistics presented are alarming. First, the infant mortality rate which “has not fallen since 2005”. Then, the fact that France remains above the European Union average, and has been for 6 years.
In 2021, the last year for which data has been published, France had 3.7 deaths per 1,000 “live births” – a total excluding stillbirths. A “historically low” rate according to INSEE, which has data dating back to 1901. For example, a hundred years ago, in 1923, France had 101.8 deaths per 1000 births. If the fall is considerable, the trend is no longer the right one, the rate is no longer falling, worse, between 2014 and 2017, it even “increased slightly”.
We must also compare the French situation with that of our direct neighbours. On average, within the EU, there were 3.3 deaths per 1000 births in the same year. France therefore pulls the average upwards, unlike the Nordic countries. In Sweden, for example, the rate is only 2.4 per 1,000. In Finland, it is 1.8, two times less than in France. Conversely, France generally does better than its neighbors in Eastern Europe.
The first week, danger zone
INSEE statistics show that the mortality of newborns is mainly concentrated in the seven days following birth, we then speak of “early neonatal mortality”. This is half of the cases (51%), or 1,350 children in 2021.
The rest is split almost evenly between deaths between 7 and 27 days following birth (23%) and between 28 days and a year (26%). Twenty years ago, 36% of infants died before blowing out their first candle, ie ten points more.
If France suffers from the comparison with some of its neighbors, the data show strong differences within the territory itself. The infant mortality rate is three times higher in Mayotte than in PACA or Pays de la Loire. In general, the overseas territories are those which suffer the most losses. In order, Mayotte (8.9), Guyana (8.2), Guadeloupe (8.1), Martinique (7.2) and finally Reunion (6.7), which remains largely above above the national average. In Île-de-France, there are 4 deaths per 1000 births.
Globally, UNICEF estimates that several factors influence the child mortality rate. Inequality in access to care, especially among the most precarious, is one of the most important. Birth in a “very poor environment” increases the chances of death by 40%. Also, “babies whose mothers have no schooling are twice as likely to die in the first few days as those whose mothers have secondary education”. This is particularly true in developing countries.
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