Gun death and violence in the United States by state

This is a list of US states by gun deaths and rates of violence. In 2021, there were 26,000 gun suicides and 21,000 gun homicides, together making up a sixth of deaths from external causes. Gun deaths make up about half of all suicides, but over 80% of homicides.^[5]

Gun-related suicides and homicides in the United States^[1]

Handguns are involved in most U.S. gun homicides.^[2]

Gun-related death rates are positively correlated with household gun ownership rates.^[3]

A 2023 study concluded that more restrictive state gun policies reduced homicide and suicide gun deaths.^[4]

Gun deaths in 2021 rose to levels not seen since the 1990s, but remained below rates of the 1970s.^[6]

A 2022 study found that guns were the cause of more years lost than any other source of traumatic injury, including motor vehicles.^[7]

Gun death rates

Gun suicide rate by state (2021)^[5]

Gun homicide rate by state (2021)^[5]

Gun death rate by county (2023)^[8]

Data are from the CDC and are for the year 2021.^[5] Rates are per 100,000 inhabitants. Gun ownership estimates are from the RAND Corporation.^[9]

Gun death rates per 100,000 people

Location	Gun suicide rate	Suicide rate	Gun homicide rate	Homicide rate	% gun at home
United States	7.9	14.5	6.3	7.8	[a]
Wyoming	23.7	32.8	1.7	2.8	61%
Montana	21.6	31.7	2.7	4.2	65%
Alaska	19.4	30.0	4.2	6.7	57%
New Mexico	14.4	25.2	10.9	14.5	36%
Oklahoma	13.8	22.0	6.4	8.6	55%
Idaho	13.8	20.4	1.5	2.2	58%
North Dakota	13.2	20.1	2.6	3.1	53%
Nevada	13.1	22.0	6.3	8.4	33%
Arkansas	12.9	20.4	9.3	11.1	52%
Colorado	12.8	23.8	4.7	6.3	38%
West Virginia	12.7	21.0	4.8	6.4	60%
Alabama	12.4	16.4	12.9	14.8	53%
Missouri	12.1	19.1	9.9	11.6	53%
Arizona	12.1	20.3	5.9	7.7	36%
Oregon	11.9	20.9	3.4	4.8	41%
Kentucky	11.8	18.1	8.1	9.0	53%
Kansas	11.8	19.1	4.9	6.1	42%
Tennessee	11.7	17.5	10.2	11.6	47%
Maine	11.5	20.2	0.9	1.5	48%
Vermont	11.5	22.0	[b]	1.5	50%
Mississippi	11.3	16.3	19.8	22.2	54%
South Dakota	10.9	22.7	2.8	5.0	55%
Utah	10.9	19.3	2.1	2.7	40%
South Carolina	10.5	15.5	10.7	12.6	45%
Georgia	10.3	15.5	9.5	11.2	38%
Indiana	10.2	16.6	7.6	9.2	42%
Louisiana	10.0	14.9	17.4	20.4	52%
Iowa	9.2	17.2	2.0	2.9	39%
Florida	8.9	15.4	5.3	6.7	29%
North Carolina	8.7	13.7	8.1	9.4	37%
Texas	8.6	14.2	6.6	8.1	36%
Ohio	8.4	15.0	7.4	8.7	42%
Wisconsin	8.2	15.3	4.9	5.9	47%
Virginia	8.2	13.7	5.8	7.0	35%
Michigan	8.1	14.8	7.0	8.2	39%
New Hampshire	8.0	16.1	[c]	1.1	46%
Washington	8.0	15.9	3.3	4.5	32%
Pennsylvania	7.7	14.5	6.6	8.5	40%
Delaware	7.6	13.7	8.0	10.3	39%
Nebraska	7.4	14.7	2.3	3.6	39%
Minnesota	6.9	14.2	2.9	4.1	39%
Illinois	5.2	11.5	10.2	11.7	23%
Maryland	5.0	10.1	9.6	11.5	17%
California	4.0	10.6	4.7	6.4	16%
Connecticut	3.4	11.1	3.2	4.4	19%
Rhode Island	3.3	10.7	2.5	3.7	14%
Hawaii	2.9	14.0	1.6	2.7	9%
New York	2.2	8.4	3.1	4.6	14%
New Jersey	2.1	7.4	3.0	4.4	9%
Massachusetts	1.9	8.6	1.4	2.3	9%
District of Columbia	1.8	6.9	25.2	33.3	[d]

Gun death totals

Data are from the CDC and are for the year 2021.^[5]

Missing values indicate between 1 and 9 deaths for the year, so the specific figure is suppressed.^[11]

Gun deaths by intent

State	Gun deaths	Suicide	Homicide	Accident	Law
United States	48,830	26,328	20,958	549	537
Texas	4,613	2,528	1,942	53	38
California	3,576	1,575	1,861	32	89
Florida	3,142	1,928	1,150	18	25
Georgia	2,200	1,115	1,021	25	22
Illinois	1,995	656	1,292	15	18
Ohio	1,911	991	872	21	12
Pennsylvania	1,905	997	861	25	13
North Carolina	1,839	916	850	46	15
Tennessee	1,569	814	714	11
Michigan	1,544	810	701
Missouri	1,414	747	609	24	15
Arizona	1,365	879	430		26
Alabama	1,315	623	650	19	11
Louisiana	1,314	463	804	27
Indiana	1,251	695	517	15	10
Virginia	1,248	709	505	12
South Carolina	1,136	546	558	21
New York	1,078	439	613		15
Colorado	1,064	745	276		29
Mississippi	962	333	583	21
Kentucky	947	534	364	25
Maryland	915	310	592	0
Washington	896	617	254
Oklahoma	836	551	257	11
Wisconsin	793	484	290
Arkansas	698	391	281	11
Oregon	670	505	146		12
Nevada	633	413	199
New Mexico	578	305	230		26
Minnesota	573	393	164		10
Kansas	503	345	145	10
New Jersey	475	195	276	0
Utah	450	364	70
Iowa	364	293	64
West Virginia	319	227	86
Idaho	309	262	28		11
Montana	280	239	30
Connecticut	248	122	116
Massachusetts	247	136	99	0
Nebraska	200	145	46
District of Columbia	185	12	169	0
Alaska	182	142	31
Maine	178	158	12
Delaware	158	76	80	0
Wyoming	155	137	10
North Dakota	128	102	20		0
South Dakota	128	98	25	0
New Hampshire	123	111
Vermont	83	74		0
Hawaii	71	42	23
Rhode Island	64	36	27	0

See also

• Gun violence in the United States
• Gun politics in the United States
  • Gun laws in the United States by state
  • Right to keep and bear arms in the United States
• Suicide in the United States
• Crime in the United States
  • List of U.S. states and territories by intentional homicide rate
  • List of U.S. states and territories by violent crime rate
  • List of United States cities by crime rate
• Index of gun politics articles
  • List of cities by murder rate
  • Number of guns per capita by country
  • Percent of households with guns by country
  • List of countries by firearm-related death rate

Notes

1. No data from RAND source. Gallup reports about 40% of adults in the US live with a gun.^[10]
2. Vermont had between 1 and 9 gun murders in 2021, so the specific figure is suppressed.^[11] If it had 5 gun murders, its gun murder rate would be 0.8 per 100 thousand.
3. New Hampshire had between 1 and 9 gun murders in 2021, so the specific figure is suppressed.^[11] If it had 5 gun murders, its gun murder rate would be 0.4 per 100 thousand.
4. No data available.

References

1. ● Data through 2016: "Guns / Firearm-related deaths". NSC.org copy of U.S. Government (CDC) data. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. December 2017. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved August 29, 2018. (archive of actual data).
   ● 2017 data: Howard, Jacqueline (December 13, 2018). "Gun deaths in US reach highest level in nearly 40 years, CDC data reveal". CNN. Archived from the original on December 13, 2018. (2017 CDC data)
   ● 2018 data: "New CDC Data Show 39,740 People Died by Gun Violence in 2018". efsgv.org. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. (2018 CDC data)
   ● 2019-2023 data: "Past Summary Ledgers". Gun Violence Archive. January 2024. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024.
2. ● Murder Victims by Weapon, 2012–2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Archived from the original on January 18, 2020. (used only for 2012 and 2013 data)
   ● Murder Victims by Weapon, 2014–2018, Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Archived from the original on January 18, 2020.
   ● Murder Victims by Weapon, 2015–2019, Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020.
3. Mortality data from "Firearm Mortality by State". cdc.gov. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. 2022. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. The number of deaths per 100,000 total population. Source: wonder.cdc.gov ● Household firearm ownership data from Schell, Terry L.; Peterson, Samuel; Vegetabile, Brian G.; Scherling, Adam; Smart, Rosanna; Morral, Andrew R. (April 22, 2020). "State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership". rand.org. RAND Corporation. p. 21. Archived from the original on May 5, 2023. Fig. 2. PDF file (download link)
4. Sharkey, Patrick; Kang, Megan (November 2023). "The Era of Progress on Gun Mortality: State Gun Regulations and Gun Deaths from 1991 to 2016". Epidemiology. 34 (6): 786–792. doi:10.1097/EDE.0000000000001662. Fig. 2. ● Sharkey et al. are cited by Lopez, German (November 1, 2023). "A Drop in American Gun Violence". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 2, 2023. Trendline is from Times article.
5. "Underlying Cause of Death". cdc.gov. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
6. "What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S." pewresearch.org. 26 Apr 2023. Retrieved 16 Feb 2024.
7. Klein, Joshua; Prabhakaran, Kartik; Latifi, Rifat; Rhee, Peter (4 Feb 2022). "Firearms: the leading cause of years of potential life lost". Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open. 7: e000766. doi:10.1136/tsaco-2021-000766. PMC 8819782. PMID 35141422. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
8. Find the "2023 CHR CSV Analytic Data" link. "Rankings Data & Documentation". County Health Rankings. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
9. "State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership". rand.org. 22 Apr 2020. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
10. "What Percentage of Americans Own Guns?". gallup.com. 13 Nov 2020. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
11. "Data Release Questions". cdc.gov. 31 Aug 2023. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.