Home and Community Overview

When we speak of preventable injuries that occur in the home and community, we’re referring to the home sector and the public sector combined. Specifically, home and community includes all preventable injuries that are not work-related and do not involve motor vehicles on streets and highways.

In 2022, an estimated 178,400 preventable injury-related deaths occurred in homes and communities, or about 78% of all preventable injury-related deaths that year. The number of deaths was up 1.6% from the 2021 total of 175,500. An additional 53,500,000 people suffered nonfatal medically consulted injuries. The death rate per 100,000 population was 63.5 – about 1.1% higher than the 2021 rate.

Preventable Injuries and Injury-Related Deaths
in Homes and Communities, 2022

Over the last 10 years, home and community deaths have increased 92%, and the death rate per 100,000 people has increased 82%.

About 16 out of 100 people were injured and about 1 out of 1,868 died from a preventable injury in the home and community venue in 2022. Close to 48% of the deaths and injuries involved workers while they were away from work (off the job).

The leading cause of death in our homes and communities is poisoning (57%), followed by falls (26%).

Breaking down the leading causes of death in the home and community venue by broad age groups provides further insight into how risks change throughout life. Among children under age 15, the leading causes of preventable death are mechanical suffocation followed by drowning. In contrast, the leading cause of death among adults 15 to 64 years old by a large margin is poisoning (driven by opioid drug overdoses). The leading cause of death among adults 65 and older is falls. Customize the view of the chart below by clicking on the legend to hide and unhide age groups from the chart.

The National Safety Council (NSC) adopted the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) count for work-related unintentional injuries beginning with 1992 data. Because of the lower number of estimated work-related deaths resulting from this change, adjustments were made to the home and public classes. Long-term historical comparisons for these three classes should be made with caution. Also, beginning with 1999 data, deaths are now classified according to the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Caution should be used in comparing data classified under ICD-10 with prior revisions. See the Technical Appendix for more information about both changes.