An official website of the United States government
QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Rates* of Firearm-Related Homicide,† by Race,§ Hispanic Origin, and Sex — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2021
Weekly / June 30, 2023 / 72(26);737
Abbreviation: NH = non-Hispanic.
* Deaths per 100,000 population are age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population, with 95% CIs indicated by error bars. In 2021, the age-adjusted rate of firearm-related homicide was 11.1 deaths per 100,000 standard population for males and 2.1 for females.
† Firearm-related homicides were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision underlying cause-of-death codes U01.4 and X93–X95.
§ Race groups are non-Hispanic; persons of Hispanic origin can be of any race. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander persons are not shown separately because of small numbers. All includes all race and Hispanic origin groups including those not shown. Death rates for Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) persons might be affected by misclassification of race and Hispanic origin on death certificates. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_02/sr02_172.pdf
In 2021, among males, Black or African American (Black) males had the highest age-adjusted rate of firearm-related homicide (52.9 deaths per 100,000 standard population), and Asian males had the lowest rate (1.5). Among females, Black females had the highest rate (7.5), and Asian females had the lowest rate (0.5). Males had higher rates than females across all race and Hispanic origin groups.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, Mortality Data, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/deaths.htm
Reported by: Matthew F. Garnett, MPH, Mgarnett@cdc.gov; Merianne R. Spencer MPH.
For more information on this topic, CDC recommends the following link: https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/firearm-deaths/index.html
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Rates of Firearm-Related Homicide, by Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:737. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7226a9.
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.