In 2001, there were 2,674 Kentuckians - an average of 7 per day - whose underlying cause of death was reported to be an injury. Seventy-one percent of these deaths were unintentional, 19% were suicides, and 8% were homicides. The top three causes were unintentional motor vehicle traffic crash (29%), suicide by firearm (13%), and unintentional poisoning (11%). Together, these three causes account for more than half (53%) of all injury-related deaths to Kentuckians. The leading causes, however, varied significantly according to age group, as can be seen in the second chart below.

The tables below provide an overview of injury-related deaths for 2001 by mechanism and manner of injury, and by age group. More detailed information will be posted in the coming months on the Injury Data portion of this site.

Note: The source for these data is the Kentucky Vital Statistics death certificate database. Numbers reported here may differ somewhat from numbers reported by the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), and from sources based on the NVSS (e.g., CDC's WISQARS system). Some reasons for this include differences in methods used for classifying the underlying cause of death at the state and federal levels, and incomplete reporting of out-of-state deaths of Kentucky residents at the state level.