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Massachusetts injury facts & highlights

An overview of fatal and non-fatal injuries, and suicide and homicide deaths in MA
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Fatal Injuries

In 20221, 4:

  • Injuries were the leading cause of death among Massachusetts residents ages 1 to 44, and the third leading cause of death among all ages.
  • 5,686 Massachusetts residents, or 16 residents per day, died because of injuries 
  • The age-adjusted rate of injury deaths was lower in Massachusetts than in the U.S. overall; 74 and 92 per 100,000 residents, respectively.
  • 5 out of 6 injury deaths or 84% (n=4,772) were due to unintentional injuries, 11% (n=624) died from suicide, and 3% (n=172) died from homicides. There were an additional 118 injury deaths of other and undetermined intent.
  • Drug poisoning was the leading cause of injury death (46%, n=2,630) followed by fall injuries (23%, n=1,292). 

Nonfatal Injuries

In 20222, 3:

  • There were 44,912 nonfatal injury-related hospital stays and 487,772 emergency department visits.
  • The leading causes of injury for hospital stays included falls (58%, n=26,238), followed by drug poisonings (12%, n=5,227), and motor vehicle traffic-related injuries (8%, n=3,530).
  • The leading causes of injury for emergency department visits included falls (33%, n=160,157), followed by struck-by or against an object (14%, n=66,323), and motor vehicle traffic-related injuries (11%, n=51,284). 

Fatal Unintentional Injuries

In 20221, 4:

  • The age-adjusted rate of unintentional deaths was about the same for Massachusetts as the U.S. overall (62 and 64 per 100,000 residents, respectively).
  • There were 4,772 unintentional-related injury deaths to Massachusetts residents, or about 13 unintentional injury deaths every day. 
  • The number of unintentional injury deaths was eight times higher than suicides and 27 times higher than homicides.
  • The leading causes of unintentional injury deaths included drug poisonings (52%, n=2,472) and falls (26%, n=1,260). 

Nonfatal Unintentional Injuries

In 20222, 3:

  • There were 39,575 nonfatal unintentional injury-related hospital stays and 455,763 emergency department visits, or more than 2,500 unintentional injuries treated every day in a Massachusetts acute care hospital.
  • The leading causes of unintentional injury for hospital stays included falls (66%, n=26,205), followed by motor vehicle traffic-related injuries (9%, n=3,508) and drug poisonings (8%, n=3,058).
  • The leading causes of unintentional injury for emergency department visits included falls (35%, n=160,014), followed by struck-by or against an object (12%, n=53,202), and motor vehicle traffic-related injuries (11%, n=51,239).  

Suicides

In 20221, 4:

  • 624 Massachusetts residents died by suicide. 
  • Massachusetts had a lower rate of suicides compared to the U.S. The age-adjusted suicide rate for the U.S. was 14 per 100,000 residents compared to 8 per 100,000 MA residents. The number of suicides was nearly 4 times higher than that of homicides (n=172).
  • The leading causes of suicide were suffocation/hangings (38%, n=235), firearms (24%, n=148), and poisonings (23%, n=142). 

Nonfatal Self-inflicted Injuries

In 20222, 3:

  • There were 2,562 nonfatal self-inflicted injury-related hospital stays and 5,140 emergency department visits, or 21 self-inflicted injuries treated every day in a Massachusetts acute care hospital.
  • The leading causes of self-inflicted injury for hospital stays included poisonings (82%, n=2,061) followed by cut/pierce injuries (9%, n=225).
  • The leading causes of self-inflicted injury for emergency department visits included cut/pierce injuries (44%, n=2,254), followed by poisonings (36%, n=1,794). 

Homicides

In 20221, 4:

  • There were 172 homicides in Massachusetts.
  • Massachusetts had a lower rate of homicides compared to the U.S. The age-adjusted homicide rate for the U.S. was 8 per 100,000 persons compared to 2.5 per 100,000 Mass. Residents.
  • The leading causes of homicide included firearms (62%, n=107) and cut/pierce instruments (20%, n=34). 

Nonfatal Assault-related Injuries

In 20222, 3:

  • There were 890 nonfatal assault-related injury hospital stays and 16,555 emergency department visits, or 48 assault-related injuries treated every day in a Massachusetts acute care hospital.
  • The leading causes of assault-related injury for hospital stays included struck by or against an object (41%, n=362), followed by cut/pierce injuries (23%, n=201) and firearms (13%, n=116).
  • The leading causes of assault-related injury for emergency department visits included struck by or against an object (76%, n=12,657) followed by cut/pierce injuries (5%, n=846). 

Sources and Footnotes:

  1. Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Calendar Year 2022
  2. Massachusetts Inpatient Hospital and Emergency Department discharges and Observation Stays, Center for Health Information and Analysis, Federal Fiscal Year 2022 (October 1, 2021 – September 30, 2022)
  3. Patients may be seen more than once or at different facilities. Therefore, counts represent the number of injury-related medical encounters rather than the number of individuals treated.
  4. U.S. and Massachusetts age-adjusted rate comparisons are based on data from CDC WISQARS Injury Reports (https://wisqars.cdc.gov/create-reports/) 

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