Firearm Deaths & Injuries
This series of three dashboards provides data on Los Angeles County residents who were injured or killed by a firearm. Injuries are divided into those treated in hospitals (more severe injuries) and those treated and released from emergency departments (less severe injuries). People with firearm injuries that were not treated in hospitals or emergency departments are not included in these dashboards. Each dashboard provides trends for the past 5 years both for the overall county population and for the following categories:
- Gender (Male,Female)
- Age Group (0-24 years, 25-54 years, 55+ years)
- Race/Ethnicity (Black, Latino/Latinx, White)
- Injury Intent (For Deaths: Homicide, Suicide, or Other; for Hospitalizations & Emergency Department (ED) Visits: Assault or Other)
While we strive to be as inclusive as possible, due to data reporting guidelines, we are not able to report small numbers. This ensures we maintain the privacy of impacted individuals, but it means we do not include data for some racial and ethnic populations such as Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and American Indians and Alaska Natives. Nor are we currently able to share any data on how firearm violence impacts gender minority populations (e.g., LGBTQ+ individuals). Our data tables currently only include information on males and females. In order to report consistent, reliable data by age group, we created three broad categories for reporting in these dashboards. Our OVP Data tables that are available on our main data and reports page have more detailed data available for some demographic groups. These tables can be accessed here.
Data Sources
- Los Angeles County Annual Death Data Files 2017-2021, assembled from California Department of Public Health Vital Records Data. Office of Health Assessment & Epidemiology, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
- California Department of Health Care Access and Information, 2016-2020 Hospital and Emergency Department data.
- Population data for rate calculations prepared by Hedderson Demographic Services for Los Angeles County Internal Services Department. SPA, HD and SD geographies integrated in by Population Health Assessment Team, Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology.
Firearm deaths identified using these ICD-10 codes: W32-34, X72-74, X93-95, Y22-24, Y35.0, U01.4. Firearm injuries were identified using ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes as recommended by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists: https://www.cste.org/page/injury-surv-toolkit
Prepared by LA County Department of Public Health, Office of Violence Prevention, December 2023.
