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Children are dying at the highest rate in 13 years

Analysis by USAFacts reveals a grim trend among the nation’s young people: The rate of child and teen deaths in the US rose in 2020. One year later, it had reached its highest rate since 2008. This came after three decades of decline before leveling off in the 2010s.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that despite this increase occurring during the pandemic, COVID-19 was not the primary cause.

• Firearm injuries were the primary cause of rising childhood death rates between 2019 and 2021. These deaths — including homicides, suicides, and accidents — were around 20% of all child and teen deaths in 2020 and 2021. That’s the largest proportion in at least four decades.

• In 2021, 65% of firearm-related child deaths were homicides. According to FBI data, 70% of these deaths occurred either on a street or at home, while 0.7% occurred at a school.

  
  

• Drug overdoses surpassed cancer as the third most common cause of death for children and teens from 2019 to 2021. Of the 2,079 young Americans who fatally overdosed in 2021, 53% of deaths were attributed to narcotics and hallucinogens. Of those, nearly three quarters involved fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.

  
  

• Childhood and teenage flu and pneumonia deaths decreased slightly from 2019 to 2021. The CDC has attributed this to the effectiveness of the flu vaccine as well as mask wearing, hand washing, and other COVID-19 mitigation measures.

  
  

Causes of death don’t affect all children the same way; there are clear differences by race. See which demographics are most afflicted by car accidents, gun violence, and diseases in this report.  

A history of US aid to Israel

You are probably seeing a lot in the news about the war in the Middle East. The fact is, USAFacts does not have available data about the fighting happening in Israel and Gaza. However, we’ve updated this existing article about US aid to Israel with the most recent data available.

• The United States committed over $3.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel in 2022. About 99.7% of that aid went to the Israeli military. The remaining amount — $8.8 million —went to the country's economy.
  

  
  

• Between 1951 and 2022, Israel received $225.2 billion in US military aid, adjusted for inflation, which is approximately 71% of its aid overall.

  
  

See more of the history of economic and military aid to Israel.

How the USPS serves rural customers

The United States Postal Service has a universal service obligation to ensure that all customers receive a minimum level of service at a reasonable price. This obligation holds true no matter where in the country the customer lives. Despite financial challenges, 81% of rural postal customers view the Postal Service as valuable.

• The Postal Service established free rural mail delivery in July 1902. Rural areas comprise 16% of the United States but 88% of the areas served by the Postal Service. Fifty-seven percent of post offices are in the rural US.
  

  
  

• The USPS employs an estimated 626,060 people — 22% fewer than in 2005. Many of these employees work in nonmetropolitan areas, defined by the Census Bureau as locations without urban areas of 50,000 or more inhabitants.
  

  
  

• The Postal Service affects rural communities in ways beyond mail delivery. The Department of Veterans Affairs provides approximately 80% of all outpatient prescriptions to veterans via mail, and over 330,000 veterans receive prescriptions in the mail daily. Currently, 4.4 million veterans reside in rural communities.

• The Postal Service’s on-time performance has improved in the past several years. Three-to-five-day delivery rates of first-class single-piece mail — including letters, postcards, flat envelopes, and small packages — rose from 54.6% on-time delivery in Q1 2021 to 86.2% in Q3 2023.

Which postal district are you in? Find out here.

Data behind the news

October is Substance Misuse Prevention Month. For facts on substance abuse in the United States, watch this video on fentanyl-related deaths or read the full article. Then, see data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on illicit drug use.

One last fact

The US offers two types of asylum. A defensive asylum seeker requests asylum as a defense against deportation during a procedure to remove them from the US. An affirmative seeker applies to the Department of Homeland Security after entering the country. The US has historically approved more affirmative asylee applicants than defensive asylee applicants.