What were the leading causes of child deaths in the United States in 2024 versus 2023?
Executive summary
In the U.S. among children and adolescents (commonly analyzed as ages 1–19), firearm-related injuries and unintentional injuries (especially motor-vehicle crashes) have dominated the top ranks of death causes across recent years, with firearms emerging as the leading mechanism by 2020 and continuing through 2023 and in provisional 2024 data [1] [2] [3]. Infants (under 1 year) follow a different pattern—perinatal conditions, congenital anomalies, and SIDS remain the primary causes for that age group, and those rankings are reported separately by CDC mortality tables [4].
1. What the finalized 2023 data show for children and adolescents
Final 2023 mortality reporting and syntheses indicate that injury-related causes dominate child and adolescent deaths: unintentional injuries (including motor-vehicle crashes) and firearms are among the very top causes, with analyses showing firearms had already overtaken motor-vehicle crashes as the leading cause for people roughly ages 1–19 in recent years [1] [5]. Broader CDC reporting for all ages puts unintentional injuries in the top three leading causes for 2023 alongside heart disease and cancer, but specialized child-focused analyses and medical literature emphasize that, for children and adolescents specifically, injuries (firearms, crashes, poisonings) and violence-related causes account for most deaths [4] [1] [5].
2. What provisional 2024 data and contemporary analyses indicate
Provisional mortality tallies and independent research groups continued to flag firearms as the single largest cause of death for U.S. children and teens into 2024; Everytown and public-health centers tracked provisional CDC WONDER figures showing firearms as the leading mechanism for ages 1–19 in recent provisional years [2] [3]. University and public-health summaries published in 2024 reinforce the pattern that firearms, motor-vehicle crashes, substance-related poisonings, homicide, and suicide are the most common contributors to mortality in the 1–19 cohort [6] [7].
3. Infants are a separate story—different leading causes
Deaths among infants under age one are driven largely by birth-related and congenital factors rather than injuries: CDC final 2023 infant mortality tables list perinatal conditions, congenital anomalies, and other medical causes as the leading categories for infants, with roughly 20,145 infant deaths in 2023 captured in that reporting [4]. Thus statements that “gun violence is the leading cause of death of children” require careful age-definition: the injury/firearm story applies primarily to older infants, children, and adolescents rather than neonatal and infant mortality [4] [1].
4. Underlying trends, drivers and disparities
Research shows the rise in firearm-related child mortality emerged sharply around 2019–2020, with large relative increases in firearm deaths and in drug-poisoning deaths among older children and adolescents in that window; these shifts, not parallel in many other causes, explain much of the recent change in rankings [1]. Analyses also document stark racial and geographic disparities—research from Johns Hopkins highlighted much higher gun-death rates among Black children and teens in recent years—pointing to community violence, access to firearms, and structural inequities as important drivers [8] [6].
5. Caveats, competing claims, and data limits
Multiple reputable sources converge on the same broad pattern but differ in age cutoffs and whether they use final versus provisional data; media headlines sometimes compress that nuance and can mislead unless readers note whether infants are included or whether provisional 2024 figures are being cited [9] [3]. The CDC’s finalized 2023 mortality tables are authoritative for that year, provisional CDC WONDER data inform 2024 trends, and peer-reviewed summaries like NEJM document the notable shift toward firearms in the 1–19 group—yet direct year-to-year rank changes can vary by exact age group and cause categorization, so conclusions should track the specific dataset used [4] [3] [1].
Conclusion
The consistent picture across CDC reporting, peer-reviewed analysis, and public-health groups is that for children and adolescents (roughly ages 1–19) the leading causes of death have shifted toward injury-related mechanisms—firearms and motor-vehicle crashes, with growing contributions from poisonings and violence—with firearms identified as the leading mechanism by 2020 and remaining central in 2023 and provisional 2024 data, while infant mortality follows a separate medical-cause pattern reported by CDC [1] [2] [4].