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# Fire Death and Injury Risk

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##### In this section

                - Reports
                - Death & Injury Risk                   - States
                  - Children
                  - Older Adults
                  - Injury Risk
                - Residential Fires
                - Nonresidential Fires
                - Outside & Vehicle Fires
                - Firefighter Fatalities
                - Fire Department Registry
                - State Statistics
                - Data Sets

## 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)

* 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.

## Understanding this information

## What does per capita mean?

To account for population differences, per capita rates are used. Per capita rates use a common population size, which then permits comparisons between different groups. Per capita rates are determined by the number of deaths or injuries occurring to a specific population group divided by the total population for that group. This ratio is then multiplied by a common population size.

For the purposes of this analysis, per capita rates for fire deaths are measured per 1 million persons. For example, the 2021 per capita fire death rate for the total population is computed from the total number of fire deaths (4,316), divided by the total population (332,031,554), multiplied by 1,000,000 people. This rate is equivalent to 13.0 deaths per 1 million population.

## How are fire death rate trends determined?

Fire death rates are measured by deaths per million population. Trends are computed to show how the rates have changed over time by smoothing fluctuations or variations in data from year-to-year.

Page last reviewed: Aug. 2, 2023

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