rate of infant mortality in the united states' compared with its peer countries at a similar level of economic development. rather, the report concluded that the primary reason for the united states' higher infant mortality rate when compared with europe was the united states' much higher percentage of preterm births. until the 1990s, russia and the soviet union did not count, as a live birth or as an infant death, extremely premature infants (less than 1,000 g, less than 28 weeks gestational age, or less than 35 cm in length) that were born alive (breathed, had a heartbeat, or exhibited voluntary muscle movement) but failed to survive for at least seven days. although such extremely premature infants typically accounted for only about 0.5% of all live-born children, their exclusion from both the numerator and the denominator in the reported imr led to an estimated 22%–25% lower reported imr. in some cases, too, perhaps because hospitals or regional health departments were held accountable for lowering the imr in their catchment area, infant deaths that occurred in the 12th month were "transferred" statistically to the 13th month (i.e., the second year of life), and thus no longer classified as an infant death. brazil in certain rural developing areas, such as northeastern brazil, infant births are often not recorded in the first place, resulting in the discrepancies between the infant mortality rate (imr) and the actual number of infant deaths. access to vital registry systems for infant births and deaths is an extremely difficult and expensive task for poor parents living in rural areas. government and bureaucracies tend to show an insensitivity to these parents and their recent suffering from a deceased child and produce broad disclaimers in the imr reports that the information has not been properly reported, resulting in these discrepancies. little has been done to address the underlying structural problems of the vital registry systems in respect to the lack of reporting from parents in rural areas, and in turn has created a gap between the official and popular meanings of child death. it is also argued that the bureaucratic separation of vital death recording from cultural death rituals is to blame for the inaccuracy of the infant mortality rate (imr). vital death registries often fail to recognize the cultural implications and importance of infant deaths. it is not to be said that vital registry systems are not an accurate representation of a region's socio-economic situation, but this is only the case if these statistics are valid, which is unfortunately not always the circumstance. "popular death reporters" is an alternative method for collecting and processing statistics on infant and child mortality. many regions may benefit from "popular death reporters" who are culturally linked to infants may be able to provide more accurate statistics on the incidence of infant mortality. according to ethnographic data, "popular death reporters" refers to people who had inside knowledge of anjinhos, including the grave-digger, gatekeeper, midwife, popular healers etc.—all key participants in mortuary rituals. by combining the methods of household surveys, vital registries, and asking "popular death reporters" this can increase the validity of child mortality rates, but there are many barriers that can reflect the validity of our statistics of infant mortality. one of these barriers are political economic decisions. numbers are exaggerated when international funds are being doled out; and underestimated during reelection. the bureaucratic separation of vital death reporting and cultural death rituals stems in part due to structural violence. individuals living in rural areas of brazil need to invest large capital for lodging and travel in order to report infant birth to a brazilian assistance league office. the negative financial aspects deters registration, as often individuals are of lower income and cannot afford such expenses. similar to the lack of birth reporting, families in rural brazil face difficult choices based on already existing structural arrangements when choosing to report infant mortality. financial constraints such as reliance on food supplementations may also lead to skewed infant mortality data. in developing countries such as brazil the deaths of impoverished infants are regularly unrecorded into the countries vital registration system; this causes a skew statistically. culturally validity and contextual soundness can be used to ground the meaning of mortality from a statistical standpoint. in northeast brazil they have accomplished this standpoint while conducting an ethnographic study combined with an alternative method to survey infant mortality. these types of techniques can develop quality ethnographic data that will ultimately lead to a better portrayal of the magnitude of infant mortality in the region. political economic reasons have been seen to skew the infant mortality data in the past when governor ceara devised his presidency campaign on reducing the infant mortality rate during his term in office. by using this new way of surveying, these instances can be minimized and removed, overall creating accurate and sound data. epidemiology world historical and predicted infant mortality rates per 1,000 births (1950–2050) un, medium variant, 2008 rev. yearsrateyearsrate 1950–19551522000–200552 1955–19601362005–201047 1960–19651162010–201543 1965–19701002015–202040 1970–1975912020–202537 1975–1980832025–203034 1980–1985742030–203531 1985–1990652035–204028 1990–1995612040–204525 1995–2000572045–205023