Countries With the Highest Risk for Preemie Babies
- A preemie baby is a baby that is born before the gestational age of 37 weeks or 259 days. A normal pregnancy is about 40 weeks.
- The World Health Organization estimated that "in 2005, 12.9 million births, or 9.6% of all births worldwide, were preterm." Countries with rates higher than 9.6% have more preterm births than the world average.
- The statistics of preterm births in the United States kept by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics shows that the United States has one of the highest rates of preterm births. In the U.S., 12.7 percent of all births occur before 37 weeks and are considered preterm.
- According to the March of Dimes, the countries in Africa and Asia have the most preterm births. They state that "over 85 percent of all (worldwide) preterm births" occur in these countries, due in part to their larger population. In African countries, 11.9% of pregnancies result in preterm births, and 9.1% of births are preterm in Asia.
- Canada has a preterm birth rate of 8.2% as reported by the Canadian government. Australia, New Zealand, and Europe have the lowest rates, with less than 6.5% of pregnancies ending in a preterm birth.
