The U.S. stillbirth rate dropped 2% last year, according to data published Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a hopeful improvement after a turbulent few years.

But there were still nearly 20,000 fetal deaths in 2024, CDC data shows, more than 5.4 for every 1,000 live births and pregnancies with gestations longer than 20 weeks.

That rate is the lowest it's been in decades, but the CDC does not necessarily consider it to be a record low.

Stillbirths have been generally trending down in the U.S.: The rate fell from 7.5 for every 1,000 live births and pregnancies with gestations longer than 20 weeks in 1990, down to 5.7 in 2019. But the rate ticked up in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic and has fluctuated in the years since, and the decline in 2024 e

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