Majority of Teen Deaths Attributed to Unintentional and Violence-related Injuries

Majority of Teen Deaths Attributed to Unintentional and Violence-related Injuries

More than 16,375 teens, from ages 12 to 19, die each year. The tragedy is that nearly 75% of all teen deaths are attributable to unintentional and violence-related injuries and are considered preventable. According to a newly released CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) report, Mortality Among Teenagers 12 – 19: United States 1999 – 2006 [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db37.htm] [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db37.pdf], the top three causes of teen deaths are:

► Motor Vehicle Crashes
http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Teen_Drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html

► Homicide
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/youthviolence/index.html

► Suicide
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/index.html

Key findings
Data from the National Vital Statistics System-Mortality

* An average of 16,375 teenagers 12-19 years died in the United States every year from 1999 to 2006. This is less than 1 percent of all deaths that occur every year in the United States.

** The five leading causes of death among teenagers are Accidents (unintentional injuries), homicide, suicide, cancer, and heart disease. Accidents account for nearly one-half of all teenage deaths.

*** As a category of accidents, motor vehicle fatality is the leading cause of death to teenagers, representing over one-third of all deaths.
Among teenagers, non-Hispanic black males have the highest death rate (94.1 deaths per 100,000 population).

**** Homicide is the leading cause of death for non-Hispanic black male teenagers. For all other groups, accident is the leading cause.

Deaths to teenagers 12-19 years comprise a small fraction of the total deaths occurring each year in the United States. From 1999 to 2006 less than 1 percent (0.68 percent)--or 131,000 deaths--occurred to teenagers 12-19 years. This represents an average of 16,375 deaths per year for this group. Teenage mortality is an important public health issue because the majority of deaths among teenagers are caused by external causes of injury such as accidents, homicide, and suicide. These causes of death are, by definition, preventable.

The Injury Center is committed to preventing injuries and violence in at-risk groups, like teens. We are working to translate our scientific discoveries into effective programs that can improve the health and safety of people in all communities. Find out more about our research and prevention activities in the following areas:

► Teen Driver Safety
http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Teen_Drivers/index.html

► Youth Violence & Suicide Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pub/youth_suicide.html

► Teen Dating Violence Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/intimatepartnerviolence/teen_dating_violence.html

► Electronic Aggression
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/youthviolence/electronicaggression/index.html