With the exception of Japan, Canada has had the most dramatic decline in infant mortality rates in the past 35 years. Infant mortality rate is often used as an indicator of a country s state of health development.
Infant mortality refers to the death of a live born infant within the first year of life.
Rates of infant mortality are usually based on the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births in any given year, but are sometimes based on the number of infant deaths per 1,000 population less than one year old. Two related terms used to describe infant mortality are neonatal death the death of an infant under 28 days of age and post-neonatal death the death of an infant between 28 days and 1 year of age. The two leading causes of neonatal death were conditions originating in the perinatal period and congenital anomalies. With the exception of Japan, Canada has had the most dramatic decline in infant mortality rates in the past 35 years. Figure 1 depicts the Canadian infant mortality rate from 1960 until 1996.