Infant Mortality The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths among infants less than one year of age for every 1,000 babies born alive in a given year. The IMR is a strong measure of a country’s health care because it reflects social and economic conditions such as public health practices, the health of women, and quality of and access to health care services. Table 3.4 depicts IMRs in countries with a population over 5 million. Singapore, Japan, Finland, Sweden, and Norway are world leaders—with IMR rates at or below 2.3. Countries with the highest rates are mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Afghanistan has the highest IMR in the world at 104, meaning that more than one in ten babies die in the first year of life. The accompanying box, “Gender Inequality and Infant and Maternal Mortality in Afghanistan,” discusses the situation in Afghanistan in more detail.
This whole section stands out to me just because of the field I'm going into. Im gonna be working with babies in the medical field and to hear about the mortality rate/death rate with infants is very scary and sad just because babies that are born should not die.