Economic Cost of Injury — United States, 2019
Cora Peterson, Gabrielle F. Miller, Sarah Beth L. Barnett, Curtis Florence
Abstract
Unintentional and violence-related injuries, including suicide, homicide, overdoses, motor vehicle crashes, and falls, were among the top 10 causes of death for all age groups in the United States and caused nearly 27 million nonfatal emergency department (ED) visits in 2019.* , CDC estimated the economic cost of injuries that occurred in 2019 by assigning costs for medical care, work loss, value of statistical life, and quality of life losses to injury records from the CDC's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). In 2019, the economic cost of injury was $4.2 trillion, including $327 billion in medical care, $69 billion in work loss, and $3.8 trillion in value of statistical life and quality of life losses. More than one half of this cost ($2.4 trillion) was among working-aged adults (aged 25-64 years). Individual persons, families, organizations, communities, and policymakers can use targeted proven strategies to prevent injuries and violence. Resources for best practices for preventing injuries and violence are available online from CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The economic cost estimate for injuries that occurred in 2019 uses the societal perspective, including tangible and intangible costs to multiple payers, and a 1-year time horizon (period over which costs are assessed) for nonfatal injuries. Costs are presented in 2019 U.S. dollars (USD). WISQARS nonfatal injury counts are hospital ED injury visits from the nationally representative National Electronic Injury Surveillance System -All Injury Program. WISQARS fatal injury counts are from CDC's National Vital Statistics System mortality data.