Child unintentional injury death rates decreased 11% from 2010 to 2019, but injury is still the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States—and some are at higher risk.

More than 7,000 children and teens age 0-19 died because of unintentional injuries in 2019. That is about 20 deaths each day. Leading causes of child unintentional injury include motor vehicle crashes, suffocation, drowning, poisoning, fires, and falls. Child injury is often preventable.

Despite overall decreases in child unintentional injury death rates from 2010 to 2019, rates increased among some groups:

Suffocation death rates increased 20% among infants overall and 21% among Black children
Motor vehicle death rates among Black children increased 9% while rates among White children decreased 24%
Poisoning death rates increased 50% among Hispanic children and 37% among Black children, while rates among White children decreased by 24%
Drowning was the leading cause of injury death for children age 1-4 years. Drowning death rates were 2.6 times higher among Black children age 5–9 years and 3.6 times higher among Black children age 10–14 years, when compared with White children of the same age.

CDC conducts research to better understand these disparities and puts science into action to improve health equity.