CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio received a D grade — and the United States overall earned a D+ grade — in the recently released 2025 March of Dimes Report Card.

Ohio was among 21 states, along with Washington, D.C., where the rates of premature births worsened from last year’s report. Other states in this category included Michigan, Kentucky, Virginia and Louisiana.

In Ohio, the premature birth rate was 11% in 2024, according to the new report. That’s higher than Ohio’s 10.7% rate in 2023, which earned the state a D+ grade in last year’s March of Dimes report.

The 2025 report was the fourth consecutive year that the United States earned a D+ grade in the March of Dimes report.

The national preterm birth rate remains at 10.4%, which means nearly 380,000 babies were born too soon in 2024 (1 in

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