Infant mortality rates plummeted around the globe in the 20th century.
In the United States infant mortality fell from more than 10% to significantly less than 1%.
In India, the child mortality rate (death at or before 5 years of age) fell from 17.3% in 1980 to 8.5% in 1996. In Bangladesh in the same period, it fell from over 20% to around 10%, in Iran, from 13% to around 4%.
Infant mortality rates were driven down by improved health care and nutrition, and by cleaner, healthier environments world wide.
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