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A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics suggests that the nation's high rates of premature births has caused the United States to rank 30th in the world in infant mortality in 2005, the latest year for which international rankings are available, Reuters reports. According to the New York Times, infant mortality has long been a measure of nations' health, and the high rates in the United States "have long dismayed health officials." Although premature infants born in the United States are more likely to survive than those born in other countries, the more than 540,000 babies born prematurely each year in the United States drives up the rate of infant mortality. According to the data, the proportion of babies that are born prematurely in the United States rose 36 percent between 1984 and 2005. Specifically, 12.4 percent of U.S. births were premature in 2004, compared with 6.3 percent of births in Sweden, and for every 1,000 births, 6.9 died in the United States in 2005, compared with 2.4 in Sweden. Meanwhile, one in eight U.S. births was pre-term, classified as being born at less than 37 weeks of gestation, compared with 1 in 18 births in Ireland and Finland. According to the medical director for the March of Dimes, the highest rates of infant mortality in the United States occur among non-Hispanic black, American Indian, Alaska Native and Puerto Rican women, while minorities, including Asian and Pacific Islanders, Central and South Americans, Mexicans and Cubans have "some of the lowest" infant mortality rates. Reasons for high levels of premature births include a lack of health care and social support for low-income or minority women and infertility treatments, which raise the odds of multiples, which have a higher risk of being born early, according to the New York Times. In addition, Caesarean sections and labor-inducing drugs are increasingly being used to deliver babies early in the United States. Contributors to infant mortality in the United States include smoking, drinking and drug use, in addition to sudden infant death syndrome, accidents, assaults and homicides (Reuters, 11/3/09; Grady, New York Times, 11/3/09 [registration required]; NCHS report, November 2009).