1 Office of Health Statistics Analysis United States Public Health Service Health Services and Mental Health Administration Rockville, Maryland 20852
We are grateful to two authorities for the following replies to Dr. Nickey. First, Dr. Moriyama:
Is the differential between the infant mortality rate for the United States (22.4 per 1,000 live births in 1967) and the corresponding rate for Sweden (13.7), the Netherlands (13.4), Norway (14.8), and other countries of low mortality real?1, 2
One possible reason for the large differential is the contribution that the nonwhite population makes to the relatively high mortality rate for the United States.