SD Indians Have More Babies, Die Sooner

Bob Mercer and Leo Kallis gang up on the state of South Dakota for demographic density. Mercer reviews South Dakota birth stats for 2012 and notices that American Indians are having babies at more than twice the rate of us American Europeans. He also notes with interest that white births outpaced white deaths by 38%, while Indian births outpaced Indian deaths by 231%. Mercer says these numbers point to an important longer-term demographic trend that South Dakota is ignoring:

These aren’t short-term trends. These trends aren’t being addressed to any deep degree within state government, tribal governments or county governments in South Dakota. While there is some ado of late about 21 immigrant children being placed secretly in South Dakota by the federal government, there is very little focus on the changing population dynamics of South Dakota as a whole and there is very little looking ahead at what the changes mean for education, workforce and public services [Bob Mercer, "Births and Deaths in South Dakota," Pure Pierre Politics, 2014.07.26].

Kallis looks at the state's freak-out over a half-busload of well-immunized immigrant children and inaction over larger demographic trends and says, what did you expect?

One would need to work hard to develop a better description of the practices of South Dakota's Republican-dominated political leadership over the past decade. Make an "ado" about a minor event; use the minor event to excoriate political opponents, but refuse to properly prepare for the future by creating policies necessary for successful governance [Leo Kallis, "Quotation of the Day: South Dakota Government in a Nutshell Edition," The Displaced Plainsman, 2014.07.27].

Maybe the state is just counting on Indians to die sooner. The median age at death for white folks in 2012 was 82; for Indians, 58. White South Dakotans lost 5,510 years of potential life before age 75; Indians lost 19,587 years to premature death. Part of that disparate loss comes from the fact that accidents cause 5.0% of deaths among whites and 13.5% of deaths among Indians.

Here are a few other highlights from the DOH stats on birth in South Dakota:

• 38.6% of the women having babies in 2012 were not married. Nationally, that percentage was 40.7%. Among whites, out-of-wedlock births were 27.8% of the total. Among Indians, that rate was 84.2%.
• 117 white girls aged 15 to 17 and 105 Indian teenage girls had babies in 2012. For whites, that's 9.2 births per 1,000 teen girls; for Indians, 48.6 per 1,000. That Indian teen birth rate was the lowest in the past decade. Nationally, the teen birth rate (ages 15 to 17) was 14.1 per 1,000.
• 104 infants died in South Dakota in 2012. Governor Dennis Daugaard formed a task force on infant mortality when he took office in 2011; in 2012, infant mortality increased to a decade-high rate of 8.6 per 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate increased among whites, Indians, and multiracial infants. 6.37 out of 1,000 white babies died; among Indians, that rate was 13.43 per 1,000.
• From 2008 to 2012, the infant mortality rate among non-smoking moms was 6.44 per 1,000. Among moms using tobacco—11.4 per 1,000.