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Maine Children's Alliance

Child death rate, detailed in Maine

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Why This Indicator Matters

The child and teen death rate reflects a broad array of factors: physical and mental health; access to health care; community factors; use of safety practices and the level of adult supervision. Accidents, primarily those involving motor vehicles, are the leading cause of death for children and youth.

What the data shows
At a national level, child deaths are down from the rates 1900-2010, but have not changed very much since that time.  KIDS COUNT Child Death Rate   By way of national rankings, in 2019, 2 states were not ranked, but Maine tied for eighth among those states that were ranked for the lowest child death rates.

In Maine, in 2016-2020, the child death rate for ages 1 -14 was 1.4 per 10,000 children, the same rate as the two previous 5-year time periods. These are the lowest child death rates since at least 1993-1997.

For the latest 5-year period, 2016-2020, county data was suppressed  in 7 counties due to child deaths over the 5-year period being less than 6. For the remaining 9 counties, Cumberland was the only county with a rate below 1 child per 10,000 children. Knox, Aroostook and Penobscot had the highest child death rates for ages 0 -14 at 2.6, 2.1 and 2.0 per 10,000 children respectively.  
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Data Provided By

Definitions: The rate of deaths from all causes to children ages 1-14. The rate is per 10,000 children ages 1-14. The data are reported by the child's place of residence, not the place of death. The year 2020 represents data for the period 2016-2020, as these are 5-year averages.

Data Source: Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Data, Research and Vital Statistics.
March 2022

Footnotes: LNE (Low number event): Data has been suppressed to preserve confidentiality. Maine CDC revised their rules to suppress both numbers and rates for sub-state level such as counties when the number is  less than 6.

Data represent five-year averages, with the ultimate year of the five-year spread indicated here; 2020 represents the average of data from 2016-2020, 2019 represents the average of data from 2015-2019, etc. The rate is per 10,000 Maine children ages 1- 14.