re: #292 jonbenjon

re: #289 allanhateme

I’m hearing this a lot— “the infant mortality stats are wrong, because of the way the US counts live births” — but I’m not seeing links to anything that would prove that, nor is anyone arguing that the infant mortality rate, when adjusted, is actually good.

All I can find (so far) on the issue is this:

As for life expectancy and child mortality, the Democratic National Committee couldn’t provide the source for the platform committee’s statistics. But the numbers do match Census Bureau statistics that are used in the CIA’s 2008 World Factbook, which shows the United States ranks 47th in life expectancy and 43rd in child mortality.

You might see different rankings depending on where you look. The United States scores better in lists compiled by the World Health Organization or the United Nations.

That’s because each of these organizations ranks countries differently. The U.S. Census Bureau includes many more places in its rankings, such as tiny territories and small chunks of countries, as the Wall Street Journal’s “The Numbers Guy” blog has pointed out.

Still, no matter whose list you check, there’s no denying that the United States’ infant mortality rate is higher than other large industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Japan. And this is true despite the United States being the world leader in spending. We give the Democratic platform committee a True.

Does anyone have any information that would rebut the above bolded claim? Because that’s what seems relevant to me in this debate, not whether US is 47th in infant mortality or ‘only’ 37th or whatever.