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Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Population Health Research Brief Series

Black Women Have the Highest Maternal Mortality Rate in the United States

Tori-Ann Haywood

February 2024

Abstract

The U.S. maternal mortality rate is consistently higher than its high-income peer countries. Since 2018 maternal mortality rates in the U.S. have steadily increased for all ethnoracial groups. This data slice uses data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics to describe U.S. maternity mortality rates for women ages 15-45 across different ethnoracial groups between 2018-2022. Results show that, except for non-Hispanic (NH) Asian women, ethnoracial minority women have higher maternal death rates than NH White women.

Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health