Fire Deaths Are Highest in the Most Rural U.S. Counties, 2021

A CDC QuickStats from the National Vital Statistics System looks at U.S. deaths from unintentional injury by fire or flames in 2021, by sex and by how urban a county is.

• Overall, the death rate was 1.3 per 100,000 among males and 0.8 among females, and males had higher rates at every level of urbanization.
• For males, rates were lowest in large fringe (0.8) and large central (0.9) metropolitan areas and rose as counties became less urban, reaching 3.0 in noncore (the most rural) counties.
• For females, the rate was lowest in large central metropolitan areas (0.5) and rose to 1.8 in noncore counties.

Notes

Rates are crude deaths per 100,000 population, with 95% confidence intervals shown as error bars. Deaths were identified by underlying cause of death (ICD-10 codes X00–X09). Counties were grouped with the 2013 NCHS Urban–Rural Classification Scheme for Counties.

Sources

• CDC, MMWR, "QuickStats: Rates of Death Due to Unintentional Injury from Fire or Flames, by Sex and Urbanization Level — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2021." Reported by Merianne R. Spencer and Matthew F. Garnett. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7214a5.htm
• Data: National Vital Statistics System, mortality data, 2021.
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.