This is a three month rise from what the CDC estimated for children born the previous year in 2008. In 2009, there were about 36,000 less deaths in the U.S. than in 2008. Life expectancy in the U.S. has been following this rising trend ever since the 1940s, but in some years it did go down briefly, and then rose again.
The CDC said that deaths were down for several reasons, but that there wasn’t really one single type of death that went down more than others. However, advances in medicine, medical procedures, and campaigns against smoking were thought to be part of the reason in the drop in deaths.
Some of the causes of death listed in the CDC report that went down included heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, Alzheimer’s disease, murder, the flu and pneumonia. An interesting note is that despite the fact that in 2009 the swine flu occurred, death from related disease went down five percent.
There was also good news about infant mortality rates for 2009. The infant mortality rate was calculated as a record low, with 6.42 deaths per 1,000 live births, making a decrease of about three percent over what it was in 2008.