Data | The highs and lows in States' infant mortality rate rankings
The Hindu
The IMR of top-ranked States such as Kerala and Delhi were comparable to high-income and upper-middle-income countries such as the U.S. and China
The improved in all the States between 2014 and 2019. However, wide variations exist among the States in the pace of decline. It is important to note that States with a relatively low IMR to start with find it difficult to improve, while States with a relatively high IMR find it easier to do so. Thus, reduction of IMR in terms of absolute value cannot be used to gauge the performance of the States.
Therefore, the IMR of all the States were compared with 185 countries and their global ranks were computed. In 2019, fared the best with an IMR of 6 and a global ranking of 53 (52 of 185 countries had a better IMR). Kerala improved 21 places from its 2014 global ranking.
On the other hand, in 2019, Uttar Pradesh and had relatively poor IMRs — 41 and 46, respectively, similar to Sudan, Afghanistan, and Niger. Their global ranks in 2019 fell by one and two places from 2014, respectively.
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