A state report shows firearms continue to be the leading cause of death among Tennessee children. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
Firearms continued to be the leading cause of death among Tennessee children, responsible for one in every five fatalities among children aged 1 to 17 in 2022, according to new data from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.
The vast majority of the state’s child homicide victims died at the hands of a person with a gun — 83% — while firearms were responsible for three percent of all unintentional child deaths.
The data marks the third consecutive year in which firearms have overtaken car accidents as Tennessee’s leading cause of children’s deaths.
In total, 180 homicides and 18 unintentional deaths of children between 2019 and 2022 involved guns, according to the published data.
The report, released Thursday, provides a comprehensive snapshot of the lives and deaths of Tennessee children, as well as the economic, educational and social factors that shape their childhoods.
The Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, an independent, nonpartisan state agency, compiles the annual “State of the Child in Tennessee” report as a data-driven tool for state leaders and the public to rely on in crafting public policy that impacts children’s welfare. One in five Tennesseans are under 18.
Among the report’s other highlights:
- Nearly 20% of Tennessee kids lived below the federal poverty line in 2023. Children under five experience the highest rates of poverty of any age group in the state
- Market-rate childcare center costs for infants now rival in-state tuition at University of Tennessee at Knoxville at $13,484, according to 2024 data – placing quality care beyond reach of many Tennessee families.
- One in four Tennessee high school students considered suicide last year.
- The youth crime rate (ages 10 to 17) increased slightly from 2022 to 2023, but remains below pre-pandemic numbers. In 2013, Tennessee recorded 34,378 crimes committed by youth aged 10 to 17, a rate of 51.3 per 1,000. By 2023, there were 30,944 – a rate of 43.3 per 1,000.