Firearm Deaths in the Mid-Eastern U.S.

In 2019 there were over 39,700 firearm deaths in the United States. That equated to about 12.1 firearm deaths per 100,000 population.  In comparison to the national firearm death rate in 1999, by 2019 the number of firearms-caused deaths per 100,000 population had increased about 17%.  While the firearm death rate nationally surged over a 20-year span to 2019, the Mid-Eastern U.S. region saw its firearm death rate barely budge during the same period, from 7.5 to 7.6 deaths per 100,000 population.  With a firearm death rate that was 37% lower than the national average in 2019, the Mid-Eastern U.S. had the second lowest firearm death rate in the nation, second only to New England.  A closer look at data from the National Center for Health Statistics, a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reveals the following about firearm deaths in the Mid-Eastern U.S.:

Firearm Deaths in the Mid-Eastern U.S.

State/Deaths	1999	2009	2019
DE	68	76	93
DC	163	111	141
MD	657	586	757
NJ	366	411	368
NY	1,016	958	804
PA	1,190	1,349	1,541
Region	3,460	3,491	3,704
U.S.	28,874	31,347	39,707
State/Death Rate*	1999	2009	2019
DE	8.8	8.5	9.6
DC	28.6	18.7	20.0
MD	12.5	10.2	12.5
NJ	4.4	4.7	4.1
NY	5.4	5.0	4.1
PA	9.7	10.6	12.0
Region	7.5	7.3	7.6
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