New report shows child deaths up sharply in North Carolina

North Carolina’s child mortality rate rose to its highest level in more than a decade in 2022, according to a new report from the state Child Fatality Task Force.

The rate climbed to 64.2 per 100,000 in 2022 — up 8% over the rate reported in 2021 — to its highest rate since 2009.

The task force makes annual recommendations to state lawmakers for policy changes they believe will keep children healthier. However, lawmakers don’t always follow them.

Deaths among teens between 15 and 17 years old were down slightly from 2021. Deaths due to unintentional injuries among children ages 1 through 4 were up sharply.

“You're talking about things like drowning, poisoning, suffocation, choking, strangulation that’s unintentional fire, excessive exposure to natural heat,” said Kella Hatcher, director of the Child Fatality Task Force.

Six young children died in 2022 from excessive heat, according to state data.

Deaths from medical problems such as cancer and disease were also higher in 2022. COVID-19 killed 17 children in North Carolina in 2022, up from 14 in 2021.

Child suicide rates dropped markedly. In 2021, 5.8 per 100,000 children in North Carolina died by suicide. That fell to 4.5 per 100,000 in 2022. Firearms deaths also ticked down slightly.

Nonetheless, Hatcher said her panel remains focused on suicides and firearm deaths.

“We've still seen them trending up over a 20-year period,” Hatcher said “And we know that we're in the midst of a youth mental health crisis, so we've made recommendations that continue to deal with those.”

Homicides crept higher in 2022, as did deaths from accidental poisonings. Ninety-four percent of the latter in 2022 involved fentanyl, either alone or combined with other substances, according to the task force’s annual report.

The report also showed no decrease in North Carolina’s infant mortality rate, which remained at 6.8 deaths per 1,000 births in 2022. The leading causes were prematurity, low birth weight and birth defects.

The state’s longstanding racial disparities also continued, with black infants still more than twice as likely to die as white infants. Black children accounted for nearly four out of 10 child deaths. The mortality rate among Native American and Hispanic children also increased in 2022.