America's gun death total outranks every country but Brazil
America saw 37,200 firearm-related deaths in 2016. That's the second highest total of any country in the world.
The count puts America right behind Brazil when it comes to gun deaths — and far ahead of most of the world's most populous countries, a study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reveals. It also means that for every 100,000 people in the U.S., 10.6 died by homicide, suicide, or an accident involving a firearm in 2016.
Six of the countries with the most firearms deaths are in the Americas: Brazil, the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guatemala. Those six countries racked up half of all firearm deaths in the world, the study shows. Meanwhile, countries like the U.K., China, and Japan had the lowest firearm death rates worldwide.
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The U.S. saw more than 10,000 more firearm deaths in 2016 than India, which had the next-highest total, the study shows. But India is also home to nearly a billion more people, pushing its gun death rate to 2.1 — far below America's 10.6. The U.S. also had a firearm-related suicide rate of 6.4 per 100,000 people, the second highest rate in the world.
Read more shocking statistics at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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