Despite a slight national decline in fetal deaths, significant racial disparities persist, with Black, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander women experiencing the highest rates of fetal mortality. According to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics, the provisional 2024 fetal mortality rate for Black women remained alarmingly high at 9.96 per 1,000 live births and fetal deaths. Similarly, the rate for Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women was the highest among all groups at 10.21.
In stark contrast, the fetal mortality rate for Asian women was the lowest at 3.91, followed by White women at 4.54 and Hispanic women at 4.62. American Indian and Alaska Native women also faced elevated risks, with a rate of 7.77. While the overall national rate dipped by 2% from 2023 to 2024, these racial gaps showed no significant improvement, highlighting entrenched inequities in maternal and fetal health outcomes.
The data reveals that while progress is being made on a national scale—driven largely by a 4% decline in late fetal mortality—the benefits are not reaching all communities equally. The persistence of these high rates among Black and Pacific Islander populations points to the urgent need for targeted interventions to address the specific social and medical factors driving these disparities.
See: “Fetal Mortality in the United States: Final 2022–2023 and 2023–Provisional 2024″ (December 1, 2025)
