Detroit, a crumbling metropolitan area with America's highest concentration of ruin porn and indignant local journalists, can add another notch to its Bedpost of Horrors: its infant mortality rate is disgraceful.

In the bankrupt city, where three of every five children live in poverty, the rate of infant mortality stands at 15 per 1,000 live births, a rate two and a half times that of the nation as a whole. Bloomberg reports today:

While infant mortality fell for decades across the U.S., progress bypassed Detroit, which in 2012 saw a greater proportion of babies die before their first birthdays than any American city, a rate higher than in China, Mexico and Thailand. Pregnancy-related deaths helped put Michigan's maternal mortality rate in the bottom fifth among states.

That means that Detroit's infant mortality rate is worse than that of Jamaica, Moldova, Albania, or Malaysia. The city lacks jobs, reliable public safety and transportation, and quality public health programs.

But all is not lost. The government, major charities and foundations, and corporations are all pitching in tens of millions of dollars—to save the art museum. So there's that.

[Photo: Flickr]