The National Institute of Statistics also considers “worrying the evolution of certain perinatal health indicators, particularly in Overseas”.
In 2021, 2,700 children under the age of one died in France, this represents 3.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to an INSEE study published on Wednesday June 14. This infant mortality rate has not been falling for several years now. Indeed, since 2005, it has varied between 3.5 and 3.9‰, whereas it was 6‰ in 1994.
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Since 2015, infant mortality in France has been higher than the European Union average. In 2020, the infant mortality rate in France was 3.58 deaths per 1,000 live births, while it reached 3.3‰ on average in Europe. “France was in third position among the countries with the lowest infant mortality on average between 1996 and 2000, but is now in twentieth position, with a drop of only 20% in infant mortality in two decades”, notes INSEE. The institute adds that it is “one of the smallest declines in Europe over the period”. By comparing, “between 1996-2000 and 2016-2020, the decrease in the infant mortality rate is more than 60%” in Romania, Cyprus, Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland.
About half of children who died before their first birthday in 2021 in France lived less than a week. A quarter of the deaths of children under the age of one took place between seven and 27 days and a quarter after 27 days of life. Deaths of newborns in the first days of life seem to be increasing: in 2021, neonatal mortality accounted for 74% of infant mortality, compared to 65% in 2005. Early neonatal mortality, which concerns deaths less than seven days, is also increasing: it went from 1.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 2‰ in 2017, then to 1.9‰ in 2021. On the other hand, post-neonatal mortality (for deaths between 28 days and less than a year) “keep going down”, passing “1.3‰ in 2005 to 1‰ in 2021”.
A higher infant mortality rate in Overseas France
The study highlights a higher infant mortality rate in the overseas departments: it is 8.9‰ in Mayotte, 8.2‰ in Guyana and 8.1‰ in Guadeloupe, while t stands at 3.5‰ in mainland France. There are only four metropolitan departments with an infant mortality rate above 5‰: Seine-Saint-Denis, Jura, Indre-et-Loire and Lot. Three metropolitan regions, Île-de-France, Centre-Val de Loire and Grand-Est are above the national average, while Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Pays de la Loire have an infant mortality rate less than or equal to 3‰, according to the study.
INSEE mentions several possible explanations for this trend, in particular “advances in neonatal medicine which allows very premature infants, who would previously have been stillborn, and therefore not counted as live births, to survive for several hours or a few days after birth”. According to the institute, “the rising age of women at childbearing” can be translated “by an increased risk of neonatal mortality”. Another source of risk put forward by the study, the number of multiple births on a high plateau since 2018. INSEE also cites a study by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees), that the number of women who chose to continue their pregnancy despite knowing of a serious pathology of the fetus “increased significantly”.
Insee also judges “worrying about the evolution of certain perinatal health indicators, particularly in overseas territories”. It alerts for example on “greater social precariousness”. This results in the fact that the “proportion of births covered by health insurance is falling, unlike those covered by state medical aid”. INSEE also mentions an increase in the “proportion of homeless among women who give birth”but also “from overweight pregnant women”. Finally, “if pregnant women smoke less than twenty years ago, France remains a country where the prevalence of maternal smoking is high”.
*Methodology: To establish this study, INSEE relied on civil status statistics on deaths and births, which “result from the exploitation of information transmitted by town halls to INSEE”. Data from other European countries come from Eurostat, the European statistics institute.