Unintentional Injury Death Rates in Rural and Urban Areas: United States, 1999-2017.

Unintentional injury is a leading cause of death in the United States (1). Higher death rates for unintentional injury have been reported in rural areas compared with urban areas (2-4). This report describes trends in the death rates for unintentional injuries and three leading causes of deaths due to unintentional injuries (motor vehicle traffic, drug overdose, and falls) from 1999 through 2017. Given an observed increase in overall unintentional injury rates starting in 2014 (5), differences in death rates are described by urbanization level (rural, small metropolitan [metro], large fringe metro, and large central metro) for the leading causes of unintentional injury deaths for 2014 and 2017.