A Comprehensive Guide to Personal Injury Statistics: Trends, Analysis, and Insights

According to the latest personal injury statistics, around 62 million people suffer preventable injuries every year in the U.S. alone. This accounts for around $1.225 trillion in damages. According to the National Safety Council, these numbers have been increasing around 12% each year.

Understanding personal injury statistics can help you file for compensation in your state if you or someone you love was injured. In my experience, a lawyer with past successes in similar cases is your best bet for compensation since state laws, medical evaluations, and negotiations with the insurer can all impact your settlement amount.

How many people are injured each year?

For 2021, which is the NSC’s latest national injury report, 62 million people were injured and 224,935 people were killed in preventable situations. Of these injuries,

• 35.9 million occurred in the home
• 5.2 million occurred in a motor vehicle (non-occupational)
• 4.1 million occurred in the workplace
• 1.66 million occurred in public
• 200,000 occurred in a motor vehicle (occupational)

These personal injury statistics demonstrate that over 3 in 4 preventable injuries occur in the home. Since “personal injury” includes not only home accidents but also motor vehicle crashes and occupational incidents, I always tell my clients to research their situation as specifically as possible since every case is different depending on the circumstances of the accident.

How many people are killed from an injury or accident each year?

According to the same NSC numbers, 224,935 people died in preventable injury-related accidents in 2021. This is up by about 12% from the previous report.

This includes over 4,400 people who died from work-related injuries, nearly 47,000 who died from motor vehicle-related injuries, and 175,500 who died from home-related injuries. The home and community remain the most common places for people to sustain life-threatening injuries.

In my experience, people are less likely to take precautions when working at home as opposed to their place of employment, resulting in more than three-quarters of all preventable injuries and injury-related deaths taking place in familiar surroundings.

Does a certain type of person get injured or killed more often than others?

Injury-related deaths vary widely between ethnic groups with Whites accounting for 68%, Blacks 15%, Hispanic 12%, Asian 2%, and others 1%. Significantly, this differs from the percentage of these races in the population. For example, people of Asian descent represent 6.3% of the U.S. population, making this group proportionally less likely to experience injury than others.

In my experience, the demographics of injuries and injury-related deaths cannot be summarized simply. Many factors must be weighed when determining the risk factors of certain populations, including socioeconomic status, regional differences, education level, access to healthcare, and more.

How many people file personal injury claims each year?

There are resources in all U.S. states for injured people to seek compensation for their injuries. Estimations of how many personal injury cases are filed in the U.S. each year are difficult to ascertain since so many cases are dropped or filed confidentially. However, I believe that as many as 500,000 or more pass over the desks of lawyers each year.

About half of these come from car accident claims while the rest include malpractice, product liability, and other types of accidents. Since each state has safeguards in place to protect people from negligence, these cases continue to be necessary sources of emotional and financial closure for thousands of families.

How often do injury victims win their personal injury cases?

The relevant personal injury settlement statistics on how many cases result in compensation are very old, but the DOJ reports that trial outcomes tend to be favorable around half the time for personal injury cases. These numbers are better in car accident and dog bite cases and worse in product liability and medical malpractice cases.

How much do personal injury victims usually get in compensation?

Personal injury settlement statistics vary widely between regions and cases, but the type of case is the most useful metric when determining the settlement amount. While the average compensation for car accidents is around $16,000, the average for medical malpractice cases is as high as $450,000.

Remember that the harder a case is to win, the higher its settlement amount tends to be. Personal injury mediation statistics are difficult to find as well due to the confidential nature of these cases, but in my experience, a mediator can be a powerful ally when jointly resolving an injury case between a victim and an insurer, employer, company, or other entity.

How long do personal injury cases take?

There’s no way to know how long personal injury cases take because every case is different. Some can be resolved in a matter of weeks while others can take much longer.

The presence of a mediator, the presence of multiple defendants, whether a case is a class action, whether it’s a malpractice case, and whether there are accusations of negligence can all contribute to a much longer personal injury lawsuit. Personal injury statistics for the country aside, your situation merits an experienced local attorney who can help you understand the evidence you need, the statutes you need to follow, and the process you should be taking to get the compensation you deserve.

If You Are Injured, You Should Hire an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney

Personal injury mediation statistics for law firms across the nation confirm that victims with representation receive higher settlements than those without. With personal injury statistics showing a gradual increase in incidents more generally, experienced representation has never been more important for winning your case.

While national statistics can be useful, every case is unique. Even similar cases can receive wildly variable settlement amounts for many reasons, including the evidence available, the evaluations of doctors, and the statements made by witnesses. There are so many factors involved that only attorneys experienced in personal injury cases are qualified to manage them.

If you have been injured, time is not on your side. Contact a personal injury lawyer near you to learn the steps you should be taking to receive the settlement you deserve.