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QuickStats: Rates* of Firearm-Related Deaths† Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years, by Selected Intent§ and Age Group — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2019
Weekly / March 12, 2021 / 70(10);365
* Crude death rate per 100,000 population; 95% confidence intervals indicated with error bars.
† Deaths caused by firearm-related injuries were identified using the following International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision underlying cause-of-death codes: U01.4; W32–W34; X72–X74; X93–X95; Y22–Y24; and Y35.0.
§ In addition to suicide and homicide, all intents include other intent categories (unintentional, legal intervention, and undetermined intent), which are not shown separately and accounted for 3.3% of all firearm-related deaths (all intents) in 2019.
Among persons aged ≥15 years, for all firearm-related deaths (all intents), rates were highest among those aged 15–24 years (17.4 per 100,000). For deaths involving firearm-related suicides, rates increased with age, from 6.6 among persons aged 15–24 years to 11.8 among those aged ≥65 years. A different pattern was found for firearm-related homicides, in which rates decreased with age, from 10.2 among those aged 15–24 years to 0.9 among those aged ≥65 years.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, Mortality Data, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/deaths.htm
Reported by: Holly Hedegaard, MD, hdh6@cdc.gov, 301-458-4460; Matthew F. Garnett, MPH.
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Rates of Firearm-Related Deaths Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years, by Selected Intent and Age Group — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:365. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7010a5.
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