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Fire Death and Injury Risk

U.S. overall fire death rate trend

The fire death rates in the United States have fluctuated over the past 10 years. From 2012 to 2021, the 10-year trend in the fire death rate per million population increased 18%. In 2021, the fire death rate in the U.S. was 13.0 deaths per million population – 14% higher than it was in 2020 when the fire death rate was 11.4 deaths per million population.

Although the fire death rates generally increased over the 10 years, the rates are still lower than they were more than 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 2012 at 10.0 fire deaths per million population.

Fire death rates per million population (2012‑2021)

YearNumber of fire deathsPopulationFire death rate (per million population)
2012314631387766210.0
2013346831605994711.0
2014342831838632910.8
2015336232073899410.5
2016351532307175510.9
2017364532512212811.2
2018381032683819911.7
2019351532832995310.7
2020379033151151211.4
2021431633203155413.0
10-year trend (%)+17.9%*

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

Sources:

  • National Center for Health Statistics. 2012-2021 Mortality Data Files, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.
  • U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. July 1, 2012-2019 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.
  • U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. July 1, 2020-2021 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, 2022 (NST-EST2022-POP). Release date: December 2022.