QuickStats: Percentage of Deaths from External Causes,* by Age Group† — United States, 2017
Weekly / August 16, 2019 / 68(32);710
* External causes of death include intentional and unintentional injury, poisoning (including drug overdose), and complication of medical or surgical care and are identified with International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes V01–Y89 and U01–U03.
† Deaths for which an age could not be determined are included in “All ages” but are not included among the age groups given.
In 2017, 9% of all deaths were due to external causes. The percentage of deaths due to external causes was highest for those aged 15–24 years (79%) and lowest for those aged <1 year (8%) and aged >65 years (3%) at death. Among those aged 1–14 years, 44% of deaths were due to external causes, compared with 54% for those aged 25–44 years and 13% for those aged 45–65 years.
Source: National Vital Statistics System. Underlying cause of death data, 2017. https://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html.
Reported by: R. Henry Olaisen, PhD, okm7@cdc.gov, 301-458-4438; R.N. Anderson, PhD.
For more information on this topic, CDC recommends the following link: https://www.cdc.gov/injury/.
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Deaths from External Causes, by Age Group — United States, 2017. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2019;68:710. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6832a7.
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.