Main findings
This systematic review and meta-analysis identified 15 studies investigating the causes of stillbirth in various ethnic groups in high income nations. Despite over 70 thousand stillbirths included in this review, there was an overall paucity of recent, high quality studies investigating the causes of stillbirth in many ethnic groups. While proportions of stillbirth attributable to various ICD-10-PM causes appeared largely comparable between ethnic groups for which data were available, a significant proportion of stillbirths were either unexplained or fell into the other category, highlighting one of the key challenges in achieving the WHO’s Every Newbornstillbirth target. Our results support the need for additional appropriately designed autopsy studies that utilise a consistent stillbirth classification system to further investigate the causes of stillbirth in ethnic groups poorly represented in our study.