After nearly a decade of rising injury-related deaths in the United States, new data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) shows a decline in recent years. The report, published in March, highlights trends in injury death rates from 2003 to 2023, with a focus on unintentional injuries, suicides, and homicides.

Sally C. Curtin, a researcher with the NCHS in Hyattsville, Maryland, led the analysis. The data revealed that after a period of stability from 2003 to 2013, the total age-adjusted injury death rate in the U.S. increased by 21 percent between 2013 and 2019 — from 58.8 to 71.2 deaths per 100,000 people. This was followed by a sharp 25 percent increase through 2021, peaking at 89 deaths per 100,000. However, the report notes a 4 percent decline in injury deaths between 2021 and 2023, with the rate dropping to 85.3 per 100,000.

The sharpest rises were driven by unintentional drug overdose deaths, which have more than tripled between 2003 and 2019. There was a further 58 percent surge in these deaths through 2022, before a slight 4 percent decline in 2023.

Firearm-related suicides also followed a worrying trend, rising from 2006 to 2018, then briefly declining in 2019 before increasing again through 2021. These rates have since stabilized through 2023.

Similarly, firearm-related homicides saw a decline from 2003 to 2014, but rates climbed again through 2021, followed by a decline through 2023.

"Drug overdose was the leading method of unintentional injury deaths during 2013 to 2023," Curtin writes in the report. "Death rates increased from 2003 to 2022, with the largest increase from 2019 to 2022."

While the recent decline offers a glimmer of hope, public health experts warn that sustained efforts in drug overdose prevention, mental health support, and firearm safety will be critical to maintaining and accelerating this downward trend.