Iowa
- Suicides make up 80% of all firearm deaths in Iowa.
- Nearly half of all suicides in Iowa are by firearm.
- In 2017, there were 222 firearm suicide deaths in Iowa.
- Compared to other states, Iowa’s firearm suicide rate in 2017 was ranked 14/50 from lowest to highest.
Data
Firearm Deaths in Iowa2008-2017
Number of deaths
The “other” category is defined as any firearm death that is not defined by the CDC as a homicide or a suicide. This could include unintentional, undetermined, and legal intervention. To obtain the number of deaths in the “other” category, the total number of firearm suicide deaths and firearm homicide deaths were subtracted from the overall firearm deaths in a given year.
Firearm Suicide Rates in Iowa and the United States2008-2017
Age-adjusted rate per 100,000
Demographics
Firearm Suicide Deaths in Iowa by Sex2013-2017
Firearm Suicide Rates in Iowa by Sex, Race, and Ethnicity2013-2017
The chart above includes one racial category: (1) White.
The CDC considers firearm suicide rates based on fewer than 20 deaths “statistically unreliable” and suppresses firearm suicide rates based on fewer than 10 deaths. Fewer than 20 firearm suicides were reported during this time period for the following races and Hispanic Origin category and therefore are omitted from the above chart: American Indian/ Alaska Native females and males, Asian/ Pacific Islander females and males, Black females and males, and Hispanic/Latino females and males.
Notes:
- The most recently available CDC data is 2017; as such, 2017 data is used where appropriate.
- Unless otherwise specified, statistics reflect 5-year averages (2013-2017).
- All rates listed are age-adjusted in order to allow for accurate comparisons between populations with differing age distributions.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Suicide Deaths and Rates per 100,000. WONDER Online Database, 1999-2017. Available: http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html.
This page was last updated on August 3, 2019.