North Carolina is celebrating a historic shift in public health as new state data reveals the lowest infant mortality rate in the state’s history. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the infant mortality rate dropped nearly nine percent over the last year, a decline experts attribute to Medicaid expansion and extended postpartum care for new mothers.
The report brings more good news regarding the state’s addiction crisis. Overdose deaths across North Carolina plummeted by more than a third in 2024, marking the first significant decline in five years. Governor Josh Stein credited the turnaround to a billion-dollar reinvestment of opioid settlement funds into local treatment and the distribution of over 150,000 doses of life-saving naloxone.
While health officials say the numbers prove that recent investments in behavioral health and insurance coverage are working, challenges remain. Cancer has returned as the state's leading cause of death, and significant racial disparities in infant health persist.
State leaders say they are committed to using this momentum to ensure these improvements reach every community in the state.
