The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) provides states and communities with a clearer understanding of violent deaths to guide local decisions about efforts to prevent violence and helps them track progress over time.

To stop violent deaths, we must first understand all the facts. Created in 2002, the NVDRS is a surveillance system that pulls together data on violent deaths in 18 states (see map below), including information about homicides, such as homicides perpetrated by a intimate partner (e.g., boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband), child maltreatment (or child abuse) fatalities, suicides, deaths where individuals are killed by law enforcement in the line of duty, unintentional firearm injury deaths, and deaths of undetermined intent.

These data are supported by WISQARS, an interactive query system that provides data on injury deaths, violent deaths, and nonfatal injuries.

Among the almost 30,500 violent deaths reported in Colombia in 2022, approximately 13,939 were classified as homicides. Road fatalities was the second main cause of violent deaths, with 8,506 victims.

The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) collects data on violent deaths, i.e., suicides, homicides, and legal intervention, including terrorism-related incidents. The system also includes some other types of deaths, namely deaths due to undetermined intent and unintentional deaths due to firearms. One of the main reasons for including these types of deaths is that there is overlap in how these deaths are coded. For example, a particular poisoning case may be classified as an undetermined death in one state, but in a neighboring state, the same case may be coded as a suicide or an unintentional poisoning. NVDRS is an incident-based system that collects data from different data sources, including death certificates, coroner and medical examiner records, police reports, crime lab data, and child fatality review records. The system collects data on a violent incident, the deaths belonging to that incident, the injury mechanisms leading to death, and the alleged perpetrators (suspects) involved in the violent incident. The relationship of the victim to the suspect is also recorded, as are the relationships of each person to the injury mechanisms included. State health departments participating in NVDRS typically identify relevant violent deaths as their death certificates are filed and then establish the details of the cases from medical examiner, coroner, and law enforcement records. Data collection is ongoing as the source documents from the different data providers become available at different times and intervals. The data represent the violent incidents that occurred between January and December of that data year as submitted by the participating states.

The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) is a state-based, active surveillance system designed to obtain a complete census of all resident and occurrent violent deaths in participating states. Data are collected from multiple sources and entered into a relational data base. NVDRS is coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The Global Violent Deaths (GVD) database integrates indicators on the major causes of lethal interpersonal and communal violence—intentional and unintentional homicides, killings in legal interventions, and direct conflict deaths—and combines them in a single violent deaths indicator. These indicators are also reported in a disaggregated format by the sex of the victim and perpetration mechanism, namely firearm killings. The GVD database tracks this information across 222 countries and territories worldwide yearly from 2004 and reports both crude counts and rates per 100,000 population. The input data is retrieved from reliable sources, such as governments, national and international organizations, trusted non-governmental organizations, and verified media outlets. Missing data points are estimated using the methods described in this document.

The GVD database is updated annually by the Small Arms Survey, an associated programme of the Geneva Graduate Institute, which strengthens the capacity of governments and practitioners to reduce illicit arms flows and armed violence. This is done through three mutually reinforcing activities: the generation of policy-relevant knowledge, the development of authoritative resources and tools, and the provision of training and other services. The GVD database benefits from financial support from governments and organizations, and notably its core donors, who are publicly disclosed online. The Small Arms Survey follows rigorous procedures to ensure that the input data, the applied methods, and the results are of reasonable quality. If the user encounters apparent errors, they should contact us via email at media@smallarmssurvey.org.

Regions, sub-regions, countries, and territories are defined based on the classification system used by the UN Statistical Division (2013 revision), except for Kosovo, England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. The names and designations reported in the database do not imply any sort of endorsement by the Small Arms Survey.

The number of students, staff, and non-student school-associated violent deaths in U.S. schools since 1992 has remained relatively steady. During the 2019-2020 school year, 25 people were killed or committed suicide in an elementary, middle, or high school.

The Small Arms Survey tracks statistics on violent deaths and compiles them in its database on violent deaths. Within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), states have pledged to ‘[p]romote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’. The first target identified under this goal, Target 16.1, commits all states to ‘[s]ignificantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere'. The database provides a tool for assessing progress in implementing Target 16.1.

The database contains data from 2004 and includes direct conflict deaths and homicide data sets as well data on 'unintentional homicides' and 'legal interventions deaths'. The database served as the backbone of the Global Burden of Armed Violence reports. Data will be updated and shared once a year.

This statistic presents the results of a survey on perceived leading causes of death through interpersonal violence in China as of 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, Chinese respondents overestimated the number of violent deaths caused by firearms and knives. Around 21 percent of respondents thought that most people killed through interpersonal violence died from firearms, when the actual share of firearm victims was around four percent of all violent deaths in China.

The Global Burden of Armed Violence database provides estimates on "violent deaths" from 2004 onwards. The violent deaths indicator combines national level statistics on homicide and data on fatalities occurred in armed conflict. The database covers more than 189 countries and territories and it is kept constantly updated. Estimates on violent deaths between 2007 and 2012 are at the core of the analysis presented in the third and latest edition of the Global Burden of Armed Violence, launched in May 2015.

Series Name: Number of conflict-related deaths (civilians) by sex age and cause of death (Number)Series Code: VC_DTH_TOCVNRelease Version: 2021.Q2.G.03 This dataset is part of the Global SDG Indicator Database compiled through the UN System in preparation for the Secretary-General's annual report on Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.Indicator 16.1.2: Conflict-related deaths per 100,000 population, by sex, age and causeTarget 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhereGoal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levelsFor more information on the compilation methodology of this dataset, see https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/

THIS DATASET WAS LAST UPDATED AT 2:11 PM EASTERN ON JULY 4

OVERVIEW

2019 had the most mass killings since at least the 1970s, according to the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings Database.

In all, there were 45 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings . This summer was especially violent, with three high-profile public mass shootings occurring in the span of just four weeks, leaving 38 killed and 66 injured.

A total of 229 people died in mass killings in 2019.

The AP's analysis found that more than 50% of the incidents were family annihilations, which is similar to prior years. Although they are far less common, the 9 public mass shootings during the year were the most deadly type of mass murder, resulting in 73 people's deaths, not including the assailants.

One-third of the offenders died at the scene of the killing or soon after, half from suicides.

About this Dataset

The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings database tracks all U.S. homicides since 2006 involving four or more people killed (not including the offender) over a short period of time (24 hours) regardless of weapon, location, victim-offender relationship or motive. The database includes information on these and other characteristics concerning the incidents, offenders, and victims.

The AP/USA TODAY/Northeastern database represents the most complete tracking of mass murders by the above definition currently available. Other efforts, such as the Gun Violence Archive or Everytown for Gun Safety may include events that do not meet our criteria, but a review of these sites and others indicates that this database contains every event that matches the definition, including some not tracked by other organizations.

This data will be updated periodically and can be used as an ongoing resource to help cover these events.

Using this Dataset

To get basic counts of incidents of mass killings and mass shootings by year nationwide, use these queries:

Mass killings by year

Mass shootings by year

To get these counts just for your state:

Filter killings by state

Definition of "mass murder"

Mass murder is defined as the intentional killing of four or more victims by any means within a 24-hour period, excluding the deaths of unborn children and the offender(s). The standard of four or more dead was initially set by the FBI.

This definition does not exclude cases based on method (e.g., shootings only), type or motivation (e.g., public only), victim-offender relationship (e.g., strangers only), or number of locations (e.g., one). The time frame of 24 hours was chosen to eliminate conflation with spree killers, who kill multiple victims in quick succession in different locations or incidents, and to satisfy the traditional requirement of occurring in a “single incident.”

Offenders who commit mass murder during a spree (before or after committing additional homicides) are included in the database, and all victims within seven days of the mass murder are included in the victim count. Negligent homicides related to driving under the influence or accidental fires are excluded due to the lack of offender intent. Only incidents occurring within the 50 states and Washington D.C. are considered.

Methodology

Project researchers first identified potential incidents using the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR). Homicide incidents in the SHR were flagged as potential mass murder cases if four or more victims were reported on the same record, and the type of death was murder or non-negligent manslaughter.

Cases were subsequently verified utilizing media accounts, court documents, academic journal articles, books, and local law enforcement records obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Each data point was corroborated by multiple sources, which were compiled into a single document to assess the quality of information.

In case(s) of contradiction among sources, official law enforcement or court records were used, when available, followed by the most recent media or academic source.

Case information was subsequently compared with every other known mass murder database to ensure reliability and validity. Incidents listed in the SHR that could not be independently verified were excluded from the database.

Project researchers also conducted extensive searches for incidents not reported in the SHR during the time period, utilizing internet search engines, Lexis-Nexis, and Newspapers.com. Search terms include: [number] dead, [number] killed, [number] slain, [number] murdered, [number] homicide, mass murder, mass shooting, massacre, rampage, family killing, familicide, and arson murder. Offender, victim, and location names were also directly searched when available.

This project started at USA TODAY in 2012.

Contacts

Contact AP Data Editor Justin Myers with questions, suggestions or comments about this dataset at jmyers@ap.org. The Northeastern University researcher working with AP and USA TODAY is Professor James Alan Fox, who can be reached at j.fox@northeastern.edu or 617-416-4400.

The indicator measures the standardised death rate of homicide and injuries inflicted by another person with the intent to injure or kill by any means, including ‘late effects’ from assault (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes X85 to Y09 and Y87.1). It does not include deaths due to legal interventions or war (ICD codes Y35 and Y36). The rate is calculated by dividing the number of people dying due to homicide or assault by the total population. Data on causes of death (COD) refer to the underlying cause which - according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) - is "the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury". COD data are derived from death certificates. The medical certification of death is an obligation in all Member States. The data are presented as standardised death rates, meaning they are adjusted to a standard age distribution in order to measure death rates independently of different age structures of populations. This approach improves comparability over time and between countries. The standardised death rates used here are calculated on the basis of the standard European population referring to the residents of the countries.

Except for the Government of Eritrea, which was responsible for a combined 1,555 deaths in the conflicts in Yemen and Ethiopia, the Government of Ethiopia was responsible for the highest number of deaths due to one-sided violence in Africa in 2021. In its own country as well as in neighboring Sudan, the Ethiopian Government was responsible for more than 1,100 deaths. Moreover, a coalition of the Government of Ethiopia and the Government of Eritrea stood behind nearly 900 killings in Ethiopia that year. The Union of Revolutionaries for the Defense of the Congolese People (URDPC) was the non-state actor behind the highest number of deadly victims of one-sided violence in Africa in 2021.

In 2022, approximately 30,437 violent deaths were reported in Colombia, significantly up from 27,700 fatal cases recorded a year earlier.Most of such deaths in Colombia consist of homicides.

The UCDP, Uppsala Conflict Data Program, contains information on a large number data on organised violence, armed violence, and peacemaking. There is information from 1946 up to today, and the datasets are updated continuously. The data can be downloaded for free.

The UCDP One-side Violence Dataset is an actor-year dataset with information of one-sided violence on civilians by governments and formally organized armed groups, which results in at least 25 deaths. The dataset covering 1989-2013.

Purpose:

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) collects information on a large number of aspects of armed violence since 1946.

Mortality rate from firearms includes homicides, suicides, accidental deaths, deaths by law enforcement, and deaths for which intent was undetermined. Mortality rate is based on the location of residence and has been age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. ICD 10 codes used to identify firearm deaths are W32-W34, X72-X74, X93-X95, Y22-Y24, Y35.0, and U01.4. Single-year data are only available for Los Angeles County overall, Service Planning Areas, Supervisorial Districts, City of Los Angeles overall, and City of Los Angeles Council Districts.Violence is a public health crisis in the US, with gun violence being a major driver. In the US, the age-adjusted homicide rate from firearms is more than 20 times higher than in the European Union or in Australia. Significant disparities by age, sex, and race and ethnicity exist, with young adults (ages 15-34 years), males, and Black individuals most disproportionately impacted. Firearm-related suicides disproportionately impact older, White men. Comprehensive prevention strategies should work to address underlying physical, social, economic, and structural conditions known to increase risk.For more information about the Community Health Profiles Data Initiative, please see the initiative homepage.

In 2023, a total of 6,973 violent deaths were registered in Venezuela. This figure includes 953 cases whose victims were categorized as being killed for resisting authority or by police intervention.

Create tables of fatal injuries due to homicide, suicide, and deaths of undetermined intent that may have been due to violence, legal intervention, and unintentional firearm deaths

Report by the Family Violence Death Review Committee on the 2014 death of a woman in her family home as a result of blunt force trauma. Includes recommendations to support the reduction and prevention of family violence, based on the case in question. Also attached to this record is the response from the Minister of Community and Social Services to the recommendations.