The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics published its final 2024 maternal mortality figures on March 4, 2026: 649 women died of maternal causes in the United States, a rate of 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, per the NCHS report by Donna L. Hoyert. The rate was not statistically different from 2023, the first year in the post-pandemic stretch without a clear decline. This site publishes information, not medical advice; if you are pregnant or newly postpartum, urgent symptoms warrant immediate care.
What the report actually found
Maternal mortality is counted as death while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy's end, from pregnancy-related causes. Per the NCHS report, rates rose steeply with age: 13.7 deaths per 100,000 live births for women under 25, 16.5 for ages 25 to 39, and 62.3 for women 40 and older — more than four times the youngest group. The death count fell from 669 in 2023 to 649 in 2024, but the change fell inside the margin the agency treats as statistically meaningful.
Where the numbers stand historically
The 2024 rate of 17.9 sits well below the pandemic peak — 32.9 per 100,000 in 2021, per earlier NCHS reporting — but remains far above the rates of 2018 and 2019, which ranged from 17.4 to 20.1 depending on the coding year. In plain terms, the sharp improvement of 2022 and 2023 has stalled rather than continued. The United States still records the highest maternal mortality among high-income countries, per comparative WHO data through 2020.
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Why the plateau matters more than the headline
A flat rate is not a neutral result. Most maternal deaths are reviewed by state committees as preventable, and the CDC's own reviews have attributed roughly four in five to preventable causes. A plateau means the interventions credited with the 2022–2023 improvement — expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage in most states, wider hemorrhage and hypertension toolkits in hospitals — have stopped adding incremental gains, while the underlying drivers: cardiovascular disease, mental health conditions, and unequal access, persist.
What readers can take from this data
For individuals, the age gradient is the actionable finding: pregnancy at 40 and older carries measurably higher risk, and preconception care — blood pressure control, diabetes screening, reviewing medications — carries more weight. For new mothers, the 42-day counting window understates the danger year: a substantial share of pregnancy-associated deaths occur later in the postpartum period, which is why most states now cover Medicaid for a full 12 months after birth.
The context most coverage skipped
News treatment of these reports tends to fixate on the year-over-year movement, which is statistical noise at these counts: 20 fewer deaths changes the rate by about half a point. The durable signal is in the age and race stratifications NCHS publishes alongside the headline — and in the provisional data NCHS updates quarterly, which showed 2025 tracking close to 2024. Judge the trend on three-year windows, not single releases.