Illinois health department now tracking violent deaths, gun injuries

The Illinois Department of Public Health has launched a new dashboard detailing information about all violent deaths and firearm-related injuries in the state.

The new dashboard is presented in two parts: Illinois Firearm Injury Rates and Illinois Violent Deaths. It is intended to provide detailed information at the county level about these incidents, including the types of incidents – such as homicide and suicide – weapon type and where victims reside, broken down by county, according to a release from the IDPH.

The goal of the dashboard is to inform data-driven prevention and intervention efforts to reduce violent deaths and firearm injuries in Illinois, according to the release.

“Firearm violence is a public health crisis that requires public health solutions,” IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said in the announcement.

“Modernizing how we gather and use data is critical to finding holistic solutions that address firearm violence in a comprehensive way,” he said.

Data for the dashboard are sourced from two public health surveillance systems funded by the CDC. The violent death and circumstances data are contributed by the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS) which is operated by Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

IDPH syndromic surveillance provides the emergency department visit data with data quality support funded, in part, by CDC’s AVERT (Advancing Violence Epidemiology in Real-Time) grant.

“The launch of this dashboard represents a significant step forward in Illinois’ mission to reduce and eliminate firearm violence. Access to reliable data is a powerful tool for directing resources to where they can have the greatest impact, empowering communities, policymakers, and organizations to take decisive, life-saving action,” Quiwana Bell, Illinois Department of Human Services assistant secretary designate, Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, said in the release.

The dashboard development was funded through The Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based private, nonpartisan philanthropic organization that invests in public policies and strategies in Illinois and other states in the Great Lakes Region.

The dashboard was designed by Understory Consulting, a research and policy consulting firm that works on issues related to human rights, social justice and equity.

“We look forward to partnering with our statewide and local leaders to use this dashboard to create data-driven policies and plans that make our communities safer and healthier,” Vohra said.

Violence statistics

The IDPH said its data reveals these facts about violent death and gun injury in Illinois:

• Men are far more likely to be victims of violent deaths and nonfatal firearms injuries in Illinois. Men account for 89% of firearm-involved deaths since 2015. The non-fatal firearm injury rate for men was 261.2 per 100,000 ED visits, compared to 37.2 for women.
• Suicide, unintentional firearm, and law enforcement intervention death rates have been relatively flat in Illinois from 2015-2022, while homicide rates spiked in 2020 and 2021 (a trend that was also observed nationwide).
• Firearms were used in 84% of homicide deaths, 36% of suicide deaths, and 57% of all violent deaths among those under 18 years of age between 2015-2022. Firearms accounted for approximately 50,000 emergency department visits for non-fatal injury between January 2018-December 2024.
• Chicago had the highest rate of nonfatal firearms injury, with more than 350 reported out of every 100,000 ED visits. 
• The most common age range to sustain a non-fatal firearm injury was 20- to 29-year-olds, followed by 10- to 19-year-olds. Firearm-related violent deaths were highest among 20- to 29-year-olds.
• Firearms violence disproportionately impacts communities of color. Black Illinoisans are more than 10 times as likely to sustain a nonfatal firearm injury compared to white residents. Black Illinoisans account for more than 55% of firearm fatalities in the state.

While the nonfatal injury component of the dashboard is currently focused on firearms injuries, IDPH said it hopes to expand the technology to track other significant incidents that impact public wellbeing, such as sexual assault.