Each year, thousands of people in North Carolina are injured.
In 2025, 9,715 North Carolinians died due to an injury.
Injuries affect people in every community in North Carolina — from car crashes and falls to overdoses and violence. We can prevent many of these injuries, but we need to first understand when, where and how they happen.
The Injury and Violence Prevention Branch collects and studies injury data across the state. This work helps us spot trends in injuries, find groups of people who are at higher risk of being injured and understand what is causing it. We use this information to:
- Guide programs that help prevent injuries
- Support communities
- Make decisions that help keep people safe
IVPB created a new North Carolina Injury Data User Toolkit to help people use and understand injury data. IVPB designed this toolkit for anyone who wants to learn more about injury data. You can use the toolkit, whether you work in public health, health care, education or just want to better understand what is happening in your community.
What’s Inside the Injury Data User Toolkit
Injury Surveillance Data Resource Briefs
- Explains what you need to know about injury data.
- Gives a basic explanation of topics like how injuries are defined, how small numbers are reported, how provisional data is handled and how to understand counts and rates.
- Describes the main sources of injury and violence data, how IVPB handles injury data and how IVPB tracks injuries and violence in North Carolina.
Topic-Specific Data Resource Briefs
- Gives information about using data on different types of injuries.
- Includes resources and considerations for topic areas including overdose, suicide and self-inflicted injury, firearm injury, drowning, and falls.
- Topic-specific data briefs including resources and considerations for alcohol and motor vehicle crashes are coming soon!
Interactive Data Resource Inventory
- Provides a searchable table with all data resources created by IVPB with direct links to each one.
Acronym Dictionary
- Shares a searchable list of common acronyms used by IVPB and other public health partners.
Why Injury Prevention Day Matters
Data is more than numbers. It tells a story about what is happening in our communities. When we understand that story, we can learn how to prevent injuries in the future.
On Injury Prevention Day, we can raise awareness about tools we can use to understand how people are injured in our communities and take action to address it.