Firearm Deaths in the Rocky Mountain Region

In 2019 there were over 39,700 firearm deaths in the United States, or about 12.1 firearm deaths per 100,000 population.  Nationally, by 2019 the number of firearms-caused deaths per 100,000 population had increased about 17% and 18% from levels in 1999 and 2009, respectively.  The five-state Rocky Mountain region, already a region with a higher firearms death rate than most regions of the country in 1999, saw its firearms death rate surge to 14.8 deaths per 100,000 population in 2019, about 22% higher than the 2019 national average and almost 36% higher than the region's 1999 firearms death rate.  An examination of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, reveals the following about firearm deaths in the Rocky Mountain region.:

Firearm Deaths in the Rocky Mountain Region

State/Deaths	1999	2009	2019
CO	452	583	846
ID	151	196	255
MT	123	166	209
UT	192	260	394
WY	74	96	133
Region	992	1,301	1,837
U.S.	28,874	31,347	39,707
State/Death Rate*	1999	2009	2019
CO	10.7	11.7	14.7
ID	11.8	12.6	14.3
MT	13.7	16.9	19.6
UT	8.7	9.5	12.3
WY	15.0	17.1	23.0
Region	10.9	12.1	14.8
U.S.	10.3	10.2	12.1

(*) number of firearm-caused deaths per 100,000 population

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2019 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2020. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2019, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on June 2, 2021