- Author
- Hall, J. R., Jr.
- Title
- U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Keywords
- death | fire statistics | fire fatalities | risks
- Identifiers
- data sources; patterns and trends of fire deaths by state; summaries of individual states
- Abstract
- The long-term trend in fire death rates per million population has been substantially downward for nearly every state since 1980. In the five most recent years analyzed (1998-2002), Mississippi had the highest fire death rate, and states of the southeast accounted for ten of the 12 highest rates, with Alaska and Oklahoma as exceptions. When these five-year average rates are compared to state differences, several factors show notable correlations, including race (49% of statistical variation explained), poverty (34%), rural/urban (30%), smoking (29%), and education (26%). Using data from U.S. death certificates, this report provides an extensive review of fire death tolls and rates relative to population for all 50 states, with analyses of the role of socioeconomic and other characteristics.