North Carolina

Key Health Indicators

key health indicators
Fertility Rate	58.4 (births per 1,000 women 15-44 years of age)
Teen Birth Rate	18.7 (births per 1,000 females 15-19 years of age)
Infant Mortality Rate	6.7 (infant deaths per 1,000 live births)
Marriage Rate	6.4 (marriages per 1,000)
Divorce Rate	3.1 (divorces per 1,000)
Leading Cause of Death	Cancer
Drug Overdose Death Rate	22.4 (per 100,000)
Firearm Death Rate	13.3 (per 100,000)
Homicide Rate	6.4 (per 100,000)

Other Birth Data

birth data
North Carolina Birth Data 2018	State	Rank*
Percent of Births to Unmarried Mothers	40.9	19th*
Cesarean Delivery Rate	29.4	34th*
Preterm Birth Rate	10.4	15th*
Low Birthweight Rate	9.2	11th*

Leading Causes of Death

* Rankings are from highest to lowest.
** Rates for the U.S. include the District of Columbia and (for births) U.S. territories. Refer to notes in publication tables for more detail.
*** Death rates are age-adjusted. Refer to source notes below for more detail.

Sources

2018 birth data come from National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 68, No. 13; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality data come from CDC WONDER and rankings and rates are based on 2018 age-adjusted death rates. For more information on age-adjustment, refer to this report. States are categorized from highest rate to lowest rate. Although adjusted for variations in age-distribution and population size, differences by state do not take into account other state specific population characteristics that may affect the level of the birth characteristic or mortality. When the number of deaths or births events is small, differences by state may be unreliable due to instability in rates. When the number of deaths is small, rankings by state may be unreliable due to instability in death rates. Marriage and divorce data come from unpublished tables from the Division of Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC.