An official website of the United States government
QuickStats: Percentage of Suicides* and Homicides† Involving a Firearm Among Persons Aged ≥10 Years, by Age Group — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2020§
Weekly / May 13, 2022 / 71(19);670
Abbreviation: ICD-10 = International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision.
* Suicide was identified using ICD-10 underlying cause-of-death codes U03, X60–X84, and Y87.0. Firearm-involved suicide was identified using ICD-10 underlying cause-of-death codes X72–X74.
† Homicide was identified using ICD-10 underlying cause-of-death codes U01–U02, X85–Y09, and Y87.1. Firearm-involved homicide was identified using ICD-10 underlying cause-of-death codes U01.4 and X93–X95.
§ In 2020, approximately 8 in 10 homicides and 5 in 10 suicides in the United States involved firearms. Additional information on firearm homicide and firearm suicide rates during 2019–2020 is available at https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7119e1.htm
In 2020, among persons aged ≥10 years, the percentage of suicide deaths that involved a firearm was lowest among those aged 25–44 years (45.1%) and highest among those aged ≥65 years (70.8%). The percentage of homicide deaths that involved a firearm decreased with age, from 91.6% among those aged 10–24 years to 46.0% among those aged ≥65 years. Persons aged ≥65 years had the highest percentage of suicide deaths that involved a firearm but the lowest percentage of homicide deaths that involved a firearm.
Source: National Vital Statistics System, Mortality Data, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/deaths.htm
Reported by: Matthew F. Garnett, MPH, Mgarnett@cdc.gov, 301-458-4383; Sally C. Curtin, MA; Merianne R. Spencer, MPH.
For more information on this topic, CDC recommends the following links: https://www.cdc.gov/suicide and https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Suicides and Homicides Involving a Firearm Among Persons Aged ≥10 Years, by Age Group — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:670. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7119a5.
MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.