Outreach Activities In Specific Communities

Mother holding baby.

Between 1990 and 2015, the SIDS rate dropped across all populations in the United States, with the most significant decrease happening between 1994 to 1998.1 Today, although the SIDS rate remains relatively low and most caregivers report using the back sleep position, infants in some communities remain at higher risk for SIDS and have higher SIDS rates than infants in other communities.

The table below2 shows the breakdown of Sudden Unexplained Infant Deaths (SUID), which includes SIDS, accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, and unknown causes, for different ethnic groups in the United States.

2017 SUID Deaths and Death Rates by Race/Ethnic Origin of the Mother, 2017

Race SIDS Deaths Death Rate Per 100,000 Births
Hispanic 503 57
Non-Hispanic White 1,753 86
Non-Hispanic Black 1,141 194
American Indian or Alaska Native 79 229
Asian or Pacific Islander 74 27
Origin unknown or not stated 34 105
Total 3,584 93

The Safe to Sleep® campaign uses a variety of approaches and strategies to craft effective messages about reducing the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death and to design effective strategies for delivering these messages to communities around the United States.


  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sudden Unexpected Infant Death and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. (April, 2019). Retrieved April 24, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/sids/data.htm.
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC WONDER. Linked birth/infant death records for 2007–2017 with ICD 10 codes. Infant deaths: Linked birth/infant death records. Retrieved August 28, 2019, from http://wonder.cdc.gov/lbd-current.html.