One of the clearest examples of a health disparity in the United States is maternal mortality: Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at a rate of 50.3 per 100,000 live births, compared to 14.5 for White women. That’s roughly 3.5 times the risk, and it persists across income and education levels. But maternal mortality is just one of many measurable gaps. Health disparities show up in infant survival, chronic disease rates, cancer outcomes, mental health access, and even the likelihood of having health insurance.
A health disparity is a preventable difference in disease burden, injury, or access to care that’s tied to the unequal distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources. The CDC identifies several population categories where these gaps appear: race and ethnicity, sex, education, income, disability, and whether someone lives in a rural or urban area. What makes a gap a “disparity” rather than just a statistical difference is that it stems from avoidable, systemic causes.
Maternal and Infant Mortality
The maternal mortality gap is one of the most widely cited health disparities because of how stark it is. In 2023, Black women died at a rate of 50.3 per 100,000 live births. Hispanic women had a rate of 12.4, White women 14.5, and Asian women 10.7. The gap for Black women has been documented for decades, and it holds even when researchers account for education and income, pointing to factors like implicit bias in medical settings, chronic stress from discrimination, and differences in hospital quality.
The pattern carries over to infants. In 2023, the infant mortality rate for Black babies was 10.9 per 1,000 live births, compared to a national average of 5.6. That means Black infants died at nearly twice the overall rate. Contributing factors include higher rates of preterm birth, lower access to prenatal care, and the same structural inequities that affect their mothers.
Diabetes Rates Across Racial Groups
Type 2 diabetes is more common in some communities than others, and the gap is significant. Among U.S. adults from 2021 to 2023, 12.2% of Black adults and 11.8% of Hispanic adults had been diagnosed with diabetes, compared to 7.1% of White adults. Asian American adults fell in between at 9.7%. These aren’t small differences: Black adults are diagnosed at nearly 1.7 times the rate of White adults.
The reasons are layered. Lower-income neighborhoods often have fewer grocery stores with fresh produce and fewer safe places to exercise. Chronic stress from financial insecurity and discrimination raises cortisol levels, which over time contributes to insulin resistance. And once someone develops diabetes, managing it requires consistent access to a doctor, affordable medication, and the ability to make dietary changes, all of which are harder without stable income and insurance.
Cancer Survival and Colorectal Cancer
The five-year survival rate for nearly every type of cancer is lower for Black patients than for White patients. Colorectal cancer offers a sharp example: the five-year survival rate is 59% for Black patients and 65% for White patients. Death rates from colorectal cancer are 40% higher in Black men compared to White men and 25% higher in Black women compared to White women.
Part of the gap comes down to screening. Colorectal cancer caught early is highly treatable, but early detection requires access to routine colonoscopies, insurance to cover them, and a provider who recommends them on time. Black patients are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages, when treatment options are fewer and outcomes are worse. Differences in treatment quality and follow-up care widen the gap further.
Mental Health Treatment Access
Mental health disparities don’t always show up as differences in who gets sick. They show up as differences in who gets help. White adults use outpatient mental health services at a rate of 25.3 per 100 people. For Black adults, that number drops to 12.2. For Hispanic adults, it’s 11.4. White adults are more than twice as likely to receive outpatient mental health care.
This isn’t because Black and Hispanic adults experience less depression or anxiety. Barriers include cost, insurance gaps, a shortage of culturally competent therapists, stigma within communities, and language differences. The result is that millions of people who could benefit from treatment simply don’t receive it, and untreated mental health conditions spill over into physical health, employment, and family stability.
Health Insurance Gaps
Insurance is a gateway to nearly every form of healthcare, and the disparities here are dramatic. In 2024, 19.8% of Hispanic Americans under 65 were uninsured, compared to 6.9% of White Americans, 8.4% of Black Americans, and 4.9% of Asian Americans. Hispanic adults were roughly three times as likely to lack coverage as White adults.
Income and education sharpen the divide even further. Adults in families earning below the federal poverty level were uninsured at a rate of 16.9%, compared to 3.7% for those earning more than four times the poverty level. And 31.8% of adults without a high school diploma had no insurance, compared to 4.3% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher. These numbers reveal how tightly health access is woven into economic opportunity.
Childhood Asthma and Housing Quality
Not all health disparities originate in a clinic. Some start at home. Children living in low-income urban housing are more likely to be exposed to asthma triggers like mold, cockroaches, mice, and dust. Common structural problems, such as plumbing leaks, roof damage, and unventilated basements, create the damp conditions where mold grows and pests thrive. When children are exposed to several of these triggers at once, their symptoms get worse.
The consequences are measurable: increased emergency department visits, more hospitalizations, and more unscheduled doctor’s appointments. A pilot program run by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that making targeted home repairs to fix these structural issues, like sealing leaks and improving ventilation, led families to report fewer asthma symptoms and fewer flare-ups in their children one year later. The disparity wasn’t really about the disease itself. It was about the housing.
Why These Gaps Persist
Health disparities don’t exist because one group is biologically predisposed to worse outcomes. They exist because of how resources, opportunities, and risks are distributed across society. A child born into a low-income neighborhood with aging housing stock, limited grocery options, and underfunded schools faces compounding disadvantages that affect health from birth onward. Each disparity described above connects back to the same root: unequal access to the social, economic, and environmental conditions that make good health possible.
These gaps are also self-reinforcing. Poor health makes it harder to work, which reduces income, which limits access to insurance and healthy food, which worsens health further. Breaking the cycle requires addressing conditions outside the doctor’s office, from housing quality and neighborhood safety to education and employment, not just the medical conditions that result from them.