As infant mortality rises in France, a note from INSEE, published Thursday, April 10, sheds light on an alarming trend: One in 250 children in 2024 died before their first birthday, equating to 4.1 deaths per 1,000 births. The ratio gave its title to a recent journalistic investigation, 4.1. Le scandale des accouchements en France ("The Scandal of Births in France"). The two authors, Anthony Cortes and Sébastien Leurquin, questioned this increase, attributing it mainly to the closure of small maternity wards, a hypothesis that is not universally accepted.

What does INSEE teach us? "A quarter of these deaths occur on the day of birth, half between 1 and 27 days of life, and a quarter in the post-neonatal period, which occurs from 28 days to less than 1 year," the publication stated, based on civil status data. Between 2011, the year when the increase began, with the rate at 3.5 ‰, and 2024, the rise in mortality was observed only in the first 27 days of the child's life. Mortality on the day of birth, as well as between 28 days and 1 year, remained stable over the period.

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