State Firearm Mortality Explorer

Gun violence is a nationwide problem. But because each state has its own unique history, people, and laws, the burden of firearm violence is not shared equally across states or population groups.

By visualizing state-level mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this interactive map shows that states in the northeast and the coastal west have among the lowest firearm death rates.

Conversely, in the south and mountain west, firearm death rates are especially high.

To see how each state compares with the national average, explore gun mortality outcomes by gender, race, ethnicity, urbanicity, or age in the map below. To see how death rates have changed over time, see our Longitudinal Firearm Mortality Explorer. To see how state laws might affect mortality rates, see the Firearm Law Effects Tool.

How Firearm Deaths in Each State Compare with the National Average

Key Takeaways

Regional Patterns

• The United States has a high firearm death rate, but this fact can obscure the striking differences in death rates among U.S. states; for example, Mississippi has a firearm death rate more than seven times higher than that of Massachusetts or Hawaii and five times higher than that of New Jersey.
• There are wide and geographically specific differences in state firearm homicide rates; states in the northeast, west, and north-central regions have lower firearm homicide rates, while states in the central midwest and south have among the highest such rates.
• Firearm suicides are less geographically concentrated than firearm homicides, but rates of such suicides are especially low in several northeastern states, California, and Hawaii. In contrast, rates are high in the mountain west and midsouth. Indeed, rates in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska are more than eight times higher than rates in Massachusetts or New Jersey.
• Overall, firearm death rates vary a great deal by subgroup, but across all subgroups, death rates remain lower than average in California, Hawaii, Minnesota, and several northeastern states. Death rates are highest for many subgroups in the south-central and central midwestern states and the mountain west.
• Firearm homicide rates among Black people in Missouri are more than ten times higher than in Maine, New Hampshire, or North Dakota, and more than 18 times higher than in Hawaii.

National Patterns

• Firearm death rates are lower in urban counties than in nonurban counties. This is driven by higher rates of firearm suicide in nonurban areas.
• Risk of firearm homicide is more than ten times higher for non-Hispanic Black populations than non-Hispanic White populations nationally. This is the largest demographic disparity in the data.
• Hispanic populations have firearm homicide rates that are more than twice as high as non-Hispanic White populations. In contrast, non-Hispanic White populations have firearm suicide rates that are more than double those of non-Hispanic Black populations and more than three times larger than those of Hispanic populations.
• Firearm homicide rates decrease with each successively older age group, while firearm suicide rates increase with age.