Firearm Injury Death by County of Residence, New Mexico, 2017-2021

Why Is This Important?

Firearm related violence is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In the U.S., more than 45,200 persons died of a firearm injury in 2020, an average of 124 deaths per day. In 2020, firearm was the second leading cause injury death in New Mexico, second only to poisoning and drug overdose deaths. Firearm injuries contributed significantly to premature mortality in New Mexico ,accounting for a total of 15,428 years of potential life lost (YPPL) before the age of 75 years. Suicide due to firearm injuries was the most common cause of premature death by firearms in New Mexico (8,457 YPLL), followed by homicide (5,957 YPPL).

Definition

The firearm death rate is defined as the number of deaths attributed to firearm injury per 100,000 population. Firearm deaths were defined by underlying cause of death based on the International Classification of Diseases, version 10 (ICD-10) codes.

Data Notes

Data Sources

• New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
  (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
  (http://wonder.cdc.gov)
• New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
  (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

Data Issues

• Death Certificate Data

  Death certificate information is submitted electronically by funeral directors, who obtain demographic information from an informant, a close family member of the decedent. The NMDOH Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS) does annual trainings for funeral directors and local registrars and the death certificate information goes through extensive scrutiny for completeness and consistency. The cause of death is certified by the decedent's physician or the physician that attended the death. Accidental and suspicious deaths are certified by the Office of the Medical Investigator. When death certificates are received the cause of death literals are keyed into software locally by the BVRHS, then shipped to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) where they are machine coded into ICD-10 cause-of-death codes. NCHS returns the ICD-10 codes to BVRHS where the death records are updated.

• New Mexico Population Estimates

  All population estimates apply to July 1 of the selected year. These estimates are considered the most accurate estimates for the state of New Mexico and should match those found on the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies website. Estimates include decimal fractions. Census tract population estimates were summed to produce County and Small Area population estimates. Population estimate totals may vary due to rounding. Population estimates for previous years are occasionally revised as new information becomes available. When publishing trend data, always be sure that your rates for earlier years match current rates on NM-IBIS that have been calculated with the most up-to-date population estimates.

Health Topic Pages Related to: Injury - Firearm Injury Deaths

• Injury and Violence