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Fire Death and Injury Risk

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Overall fire death rates (2014-2023)

On a per capita basis, fire death rates in the United States fluctuated over the past 10 years. From 2014 to 2023, the 10-year trend in the fire death rate per million population increased 27%. In 2023, the fire death rate in the U.S. was 13.1 deaths per million population — 2% lower than it was in 2022 when the fire death rate was 13.3 deaths per million population. Although fire death rates generally increased over the 10 years, the rates are still lower than they were over 20 years ago when the rate was 14.8 fire deaths per million population in 2000. Over the past decade, the fire death rate reached its lowest in 2015 at 10.5 fire deaths per million population.

Download fire death data for (2014-2023) in a spreadsheet XLS

Fire death rates per million population (2014-2023)

Fire death rates per million population (2014-2023)
Year Number of fire deaths Population Fire death rate (per million population)
2014 3428 318386329 10.8
2015 3362 320738994 10.5
2016 3515 323071755 10.9
2017 3645 325122128 11.2
2018 3810 326838199 11.7
2019 3515 328329953 10.7
2020 3790 331526933 11.4
2021 4316 332048977 13.0
2022 4446 333271411 13.3
2023 4371 334914895 13.1
10-year trend (%) +27.0%

Note: The computation of the trend is based on the simple linear regression method of least squares.

Sources:

  1. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). 2014-2023 Mortality Data Files, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. The table includes those deaths that are assigned International Classification of Disease codes F63.1, W39-W40, X00-X06, X08-X09, X75-X76, X96-X97, Y25-Y26 and Y35.1.3. These codes indicate that exposure to fire, fire products or explosion was the underlying cause of death or was a contributing factor.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. July 1, 2014-2019, population estimates from the table Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for the United States, Regions, States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2020 (NST-EST2020). Release date: December 2020, updated May 2021 with Puerto Rico estimates.
  3. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. July 1, 2020-2023, population estimates from the table Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for the United States, Regions, States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2023 (NST-EST2023-POP). Release date: December 2023.

Fire Death and Injury Risk statistics