US Counties With the Highest Child Mortality
1,735 US counties ranked by child mortality, from highest to lowest. First are Kusilvak Census Area, AK (274), Oglala Lakota County, SD (208) and Northwest Arctic Borough, AK (202). The middle one of the 1,735 has 59.
What this measures
Deaths of children under 18 per 100,000 children. Source: County Health Rankings.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | deaths per 100,000 under 18 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 86.5 |
| 2 | Louisiana | 78.6 |
| 3 | Arkansas | 73 |
| 4 | Alaska | 72.9 |
| 5 | Alabama | 72.7 |
| 6 | South Dakota | 67.8 |
| 7 | South Carolina | 66.9 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 65.7 |
| 9 | District of Columbia | 65.3 |
| 10 | Oklahoma | 64 |
| 11 | Indiana | 63.2 |
| 12 | Montana | 62.9 |
| 13 | Missouri | 62.4 |
| 14 | North Carolina | 61.8 |
| 15 | Wyoming | 61.6 |
| 16 | Georgia | 61.2 |
| 17 | West Virginia | 60.7 |
| 18 | Kentucky | 60.1 |
| 19 | New Mexico | 59.3 |
| 20 | Ohio | 59.2 |
| 21 | Kansas | 57.9 |
| 22 | Arizona | 56.9 |
| 23 | Delaware | 55.9 |
| 24 | Florida | 54.4 |
| 25 | Michigan | 54.2 |
| 26 | North Dakota | 53.4 |
| 27 | Texas | 52.9 |
| 28 | Virginia | 52.2 |
| 29 | Maryland | 51.5 |
| 30 | Colorado | 51.2 |
| 31 | Nebraska | 50.9 |
| 32 | Illinois | 50.7 |
| 33 | Pennsylvania | 50.3 |
| 34 | Nevada | 50.1 |
| 35 | Wisconsin | 50 |
| 36 | Idaho | 49.1 |
| 37 | Maine | 48.8 |
| 38 | Utah | 47 |
| 39 | Iowa | 46.4 |
| 40 | Hawaii | 44.5 |
| 41 | Minnesota | 43.6 |
| 42 | Washington | 42.9 |
| 43 | Oregon | 41 |
| 44 | California | 38.2 |
| 45 | New York | 37.4 |
| 46 | Connecticut | 36.8 |
| 47 | Vermont | 36.3 |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 34.7 |
| 49 | New Hampshire | 34.6 |
| 50 | New Jersey | 33.9 |
| 51 | Massachusetts | 30.4 |
More on child mortality
- US Counties With the Lowest Child Mortality
- Child mortality by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.