The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) 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 (e.g., homicide, suicide, etc.), weapon type and where victims reside, broken down by county. The goal of the dashboard is to inform data-driven prevention and intervention efforts to reduce violent deaths and firearm injuries in Illinois.
Although similar dashboards about firearms fatalities have been implemented in Minnesota and Michigan, the Illinois dashboard is the first of its kind to gather comprehensive data about both deaths and firearms-related injuries. Among the information found in the dashboard are aggregated firearm injury trends that IDPH collects from hospital emergency department (ED) visits, covering 185 acute-care hospitals around the state. The injury data includes the rate of firearms injuries per 100,000 ED visits, and further breaks down that data by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and county. Data from counties with fewer than 10 firearms injuries per 100,000 ED visits is suppressed to protect the anonymity of patients.
The dashboard also lists the number of firearms fatalities in the state each year, dating back to 2015, with similar demographic breakdowns. The firearms deaths page also includes a listing of the manner of death (homicide, suicide, law enforcement intervention, unintentional, or undetermined) and tallies the general locations where such incidents occur (in a home, on the street, in a motor vehicle, etc.). The data is collected and then analyzed by AVERT (Addressing Violence Epidemiology in Real Time), an IDPH program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Firearm violence is a public health crisis that requires public health solutions,” said IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. “Modernizing how we gather and use data is critical to finding holistic solutions that address firearm violence in a comprehensive way. IDPH is proud to partner with the Joyce Foundation and Understory to build this leading-edge dashboard that gathers comprehensive data about both violent deaths and firearm-related injuries. 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.”
The dashboard development was funded through the Joyce Foundation's Gun Violence Prevention Program. It was designed by Understory Consulting, a research and policy consulting firm that works on issues related to human rights, social justice, and equity.
“We're excited to support this groundbreaking data dashboard and the innovative approach being taken by the Illinois Department of Health to keep our communities informed with such important and timely information,” said Tim Daly, director of the Joyce Foundation's Gun Violence Prevention and Justice Reform program. “This tool will provide us with more accurate data to better understand what is happening in communities and allow us to make more informed policy and practice decisions to prevent gun violence.”
The data gathered for the dashboard reveals a number of notable trends about firearms violence in Illinois:
- Men are far more likely to be victims of firearms injuries and fatalities in the state. Men account for 89% of firearms deaths in the state since 2015. The firearm injury rate for men was 263.6 per 100,000 ED visits, compared to 37.6 for women.
- Suicide, unintentional firearm, and law enforcement intervention death rates have been relatively flat in IL 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 child violent deaths between 2015-2022. Firearms also accounted for approximately 49,000 emergency department visits for non-fatal injury between January 2018-October 2024.
- The City of Chicago had the highest rate of firearms injuries, with more than 350 reported out of every 100,000 ED visits. Alexander County in far southern Illinois had the second highest rate per population, at more than 217 per 100,000.
- The most common age range to sustain a firearm injury was 20-to-29-year-olds, followed by 10-to-19-year-olds in second place. 20-to-29-year-olds were also the leading category of firearms fatalities.
- Firearms violence disproportionately impacts communities of color. Black Illinoisans are more than ten times as likely to sustain a firearms injuries as white residents, and Blacks account for more than 55% of firearms fatalities in the state.
While the dashboard is currently focused on firearms injuries and deaths, IDPH hopes in the future to expand the technology to track other significant incidents that impact public wellbeing, such as sexual assault.
“The launch of this dashboard represents a significant step forward in Illinois’ mission to reduce and eliminate firearm violence,” said Quiwana Bell, Illinois Department of Human Services Assistant Secretary Designate, Office of Firearm Violence Prevention. “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. The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention is committed to partnering with IDPH and others to ensure this information drives meaningful change and strengthens our communities.”
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Minnesota Department of Health launched the dashboards MiDVRS and MNDVRS, presenting data collected by the NVDRS in March of 2023. These dashboards include trends in death counts and death rates over time and allow users to easily filter by several variables including: year, manner of death, victim demographics, and weapon used, among several others, to understand specific aspects of violent death in each state.
About The Joyce Foundation
Joyce is a nonpartisan, private foundation that invests in evidence-informed public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.