Gun violence is a public health epidemic in the United States. In 2018, 39,740 Americans died by gun violence, including 24,432 by suicide and 13,958 by homicide. The number of gun deaths remained relatively steady from 2017 to 2018, with 33 fewer deaths in 2018 compared to 2017. Gun violence continues to be a major cause of premature death.
This brief report outlines gun death data from 2018, the most recent year of data available, and shows trends over 10 years. The purpose of the report is to share data in an accessible and userfriendly format. All data were accessed using the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics Online Data Portal, Mortality Multiple Cause Files released January 2020, which contains data based on death certificates for United States residents. This data release focuses on raw numbers of fatalities and does not include rates; as such, this brief will be reissued when more comprehensive data become available, including age-adjusted rates, demographics, and state-by-state breakdowns.
