Injury and Violence Deaths

The VDH Office of Vital Records tracks causes of death among Virginia residents using death certificates. Codes on the death certificate indicate underlying and contributing causes of death. Learn more about death certificate data on the CDC web page.

Death certificate data are the data source used by CDC to report on injury deaths for states, jurisdictions, and the United States. For this reason, use death certificate data when comparing injury and violence-related deaths across states. Death counts on this dashboard may differ from reported counts from the VDH Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). This dashboard reports deaths of Virginia residents only and based on the person's residence at the time of their death.

How Injury Deaths are Defined

Case Definitions: Learn more about case definitions for injury deaths on the CDC State Indicators web page. Overlap exists between some of the indicators. An example would be a firearm-related homicide. This death would be counted in the Homicide graph and the Firearm graph.

Intent: Intent is how the injury happened. There are five types of intent:

• Unintentional means it did not happen on purpose.
• Suicide and homicide mean that the injury happened on purpose. Suicide means that the injury happened to oneself on purpose that caused death. Homicide means that a person hurt another person on purpose that caused death.
• Legal intervention or war means that the injury happened during war or a police interaction.
• Undetermined means there is not a known intent.

Firearm-related, nondrug poisoning, and drowning deaths include all intent types.

The following injury deaths on the dashboard are unintentional intent only:

• Falls,
• Fires,
• All motor vehicle traffic (MVT)

The intent for suicide deaths is suicide. The intent for homicide deaths is homicide.

Mechanism: Mechanism means the cause, or method, of the injury. For example, a person died by falling. The mechanism for the injury death would be a “fall.” Homicide and suicide deaths include all methods (firearms, poisonings, etc.).

Types of Injury Death

All-Injury: Underlying cause of death codes are: V01-Y36, Y85-Y87, Y89, U01-U03. These injury deaths include injury and poisoning (drug and non-drug). These deaths include all intents and mechanisms for injuries and poisonings. To see counts of drug poisonings (overdose) deaths, visit the VDH Drug Overdose Death dashboard.

Homicide: Underlying cause of death codes are: X85-Y09, Y87.1, U01, and U02. The intent for homicide deaths is homicide. Homicide deaths include all mechanisms, or causes, of death.

Suicide: Underlying cause of death codes are: X60-X84, Y87.0, and U03. The intent for suicide deaths is suicide. Suicide deaths include all mechanisms, or causes, of death.

Drowning: Underlying cause of death codes are: W65-W74, V90, and V92. The intent for drowning deaths is unintentional only. The mechanism of a drowning death is drowning/submersion.

Nondrug Poisoning: Underlying cause of death codes are: X45-X49, X65-X69, X86-X90, Y15-Y19, Y35.2, U01.6, and U01.7. Nondrug poisonings include all intents. The mechanism for nondrug poisoning deaths is poisoning. Nondrug poisonings include substances such as:

• alcohol,
• organic solvents and halogenated hydrocarbons,
• other gases and vapors,
• pesticides, and
• other and unspecified chemicals.

Traumatic Brain Injury: These deaths are injury deaths with at least one of the following ICD-10 codes in any of the multiple cause of death fields: S01.0-S01.9, S02.0, S02.1, S02.3, S02.7-S02.9, S04.0, S06.0-S06.9, S07.0, S07.1, S07.8, S07.9, S09.7-S09.9, T90.1, T90.2, T90.4, T90.5, T90.8, and T90.9. Traumatic brain injuries include all intents and mechanisms. For example, a motor vehicle traffic death that had a head injury would be a motor vehicle traffic death AND a traumatic brain injury death.

Fall: Underlying cause of death codes are: W00-W19. The intent for fall-related deaths is unintentional only. The mechanism of a fall-related death is a fall.

Fire: Underlying cause of death codes are: X00-X09. The intent for fire-related deaths is unintentional only. Fire-related deaths include exposure to smoke, fire, and flames. The mechanism of a fire-related death is fire.

Motor Vehicle Traffic: Underlying cause of death codes are: V02-V04(.1, .9), V09.2, V12-V14 (.3-.9), V19.4-V19.6, V20-V28 (.3-.9), V29.4-V29.9, V30-V39 (.4-.9), V40-V49 (.4-.9), V50-V59 (.4-.9), V60-V69 (.4-.9), V70-V79 (.4-.9), V80.3-V80.5, V81.1, V82.1, V83-V86 (.0-.3), V87.0-V87.8, and V89.2. The intent for motor vehicle traffic deaths is unintentional only. Motor vehicle traffic deaths include subcategories to identify the type of person who was injured. These subcategories include occupant, pedestrian, motorcyclist, pedal cyclist, other, and unspecified.

Firearm: Underlying cause of death codes are: W32-W34, X72-X74, X93-X95, Y22-Y24, Y35.0, and U01.4. Firearm-related deaths include all intents. The mechanism of a firearm-related death is firearm.

Other Data Notes

Measures: Death counts and rates are per 100,000 population. Population estimates to calculate rates come from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Geography: City/county is based on Virginia residence at time of death.

Data Source: Death certificate data are from the Virginia Vital Event Statistics and Tracking System via the Electronic Death Reporting System. Data are maintained and analyzed by VDH for public health purposes. Data for this dashboard are analyzed by the VDH Office of Family Health Services, Division of Population Health Data, Injury and Violence Epidemiology Team. Data visualized by the VDH Center for Public Health Informatics. Data are as of May 2024.

Contact: population.health@vdh.virginia.gov