Death rates in the 20th century 1 year old. In 1999, at the end of the century, the infant mortality rate in the United States declined more than 90% to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. Similarly, maternal mortality rates declined almost 99% to less than 0.1 reported deaths per 1,000 live births. There are a variety of causes for this steep decline in death rates in the 20th century: Despite these tremendous decreases in infant mortality and maternal mortality, the 20th century experienced significant disparities between minority death rates compared to death rates for white mothers. In the 1900s, black women were twice as likely
Death rates in the 20th century the 20th century. A natural population increase occurs when birth rates are higher than death rates. Recently and most notably, the years immediately after World War II saw an explosion in fertility rates called the Baby Boom because the returning soldiers and displaced people started new families. Death rates were significantly lower during the baby boom and thus populations increased substantially. Today these baby boomers are approaching old age and driving up the average age of the overall population. The World Bank predicts a dramatic decrease in population size from the increase in death rates over the next decade or