TBI Data

Key points

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø collects and reports TBI data to understand: how many people are affected by this injury, who is most at risk, the leading ways a person may get a TBI, and whether programs to prevent TBI are working.

TBI in the United States

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A chart of TBI fatal injury data, showing various years of both provisional and final data.
TBI fatal injury data

TBI is a major cause of death. This interactive chart shows the number of TBI-related deaths by month and year, including the most recent provisional data available.

Based on the most recent data:

  • There were approximately 214,110 TBI-related hospitalizations in 2020A and 69,473 TBI-related deaths in 2021.1
  • This represents more than 586 TBI-related hospitalizations and 190 TBI-related deaths per day.
  • These estimates do not include the many TBIs that are only treated in the emergency department, primary care, urgent care, or those that go untreated.2
  • People age 75 years and older had the highest numbers and rates of TBI-related hospitalizationsA and deaths.1 This age group accounts for about 32% of TBI-related hospitalizations and 28% of TBI-related deaths.
  • Males were nearly two times more likely to be hospitalized (79.9 age-adjusted rate versus 43.7)A and three times more likely to die1 from a TBI than females (28.3 versus 8.4).

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø reports

See the following ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø reports for more information on the leading causes of TBI and the groups of people at increased risk for TBI:

Surveillance and research to support data-driven solutions

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø conducts research on preventing TBIs and reducing the chance for disability and other potential effects of these injuries.

  • Read TBI research published by ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø.
  • Learn more about the National Concussion Surveillance System, a state-of-the-art data collection effort designed to learn how many Americans (children and adults) get a concussion each year and the leading causes of this injury.
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Content Source:
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
  1. This rate was calculated using the weighted number of hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of injury (ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes S00-S99; T07-T34; T36-T50 with a 6th character of 1, 2, 3, or 4; T36.9, T37.9, T39.9, T41.4, T42.7, T43.9, T45.9, T47.9, or T49.9 with a 5th character of 1, 2, 3, or 4; T51-T76; T79; O9A.2-O9A.5; T84.04; or M97) and an ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for an initial medical encounter of TBI (S02.0. S02.1, S02.80-S02.82, S02.91, S04.02, S04.03, S04.04, S06, S07.1, T74.4) in any diagnosis field and dividing it by the corresponding civilian non-institutionalized population per 100,000. Data source: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's National Inpatient Sample. 2020.
  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics: Mortality Data on ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø WONDER. Accessed April 2023, .
  2. Bell JM, Breiding MJ, DePadilla L. ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø's efforts to improve traumatic brain injury surveillance. J Safety Res. 2017;62:253 -256.