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Statistics

Several organizations regularly release statistical information on brain injury:

From the Brain Injury Association of America:

• Every 21 seconds, one person in the US sustains a Traumatic Brain Injury.
• An estimated 5.3 million Americans - a little more than 2% of the US population - currently live with disabilities resulting from traumatic brain injury.
• 1.5 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury each year.
• More than 50,000 people die every year as a result of a traumatic brain injury.

For more facts and statistics from the Brain Injury Association of America:  Facts and Stats

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Each year in the United States, an estimated

• 1.4 million people sustain a TBI. Of those, 235,000 are hospitalized and survive, which is more than 20 times the number of hospitalizations for spinal cord injury, another key disabling injury. (CDC 2001; Langlois et al. 2004).
• 50,000 people die from a TBI, (Langlois et al. 2004).
• 80,000 to 90,000 people experience the onset of long-term or lifelong disability associated with a TBI (Thurman et al. 1999).

TBI: General Fact Sheet (pdf document)

TBI: General Fact Sheet Spanish (pdf document)

Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States (link to CDC's site)

Incidence and Distribution (link to CDC's site)

For statistics on teenagers, see the Prevention for Teens and Young Adults page.

Other sources for Statistics:

MedLine - Health news of all sorts from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/  Hint: search for "tbi" and find a wealth of information.

For specifics about Ohio:

• Ohio does not currently have a system in place to track and report brain injury figures.
• The CDC's estimated 2% rate applied to Ohio's 11,353,000 population (from the 2000 census) would be approximately 227,000.  Using the estimated Ohio population for 2005, 2% of 11,464,042 would be over 229,000.
• NOTE: to figure out the number of people with disabilities resulting from TBI in your county or city, simply apply the 2% rate to your county or city's population.  The Ohio Department of Development maintains population statistics on its website:   http://www.odod.state.oh.us/  Click on "Research and Data," then "County Population Estimates" to find additional population estimates.
• Ohio established the Post-Critical Trauma Care Commission “to determine how to improve the accessibility, affordability, quality, and cost effectiveness of post-critical adult and pediatric trauma care.” The commission was required to complete its work by Nov. 3, 2003.  Read the Post-Critical Trauma Care Commission's final report (pdf document).  This document contains statistics, definitions and recommendations to improve Ohio's care for individuals with traumatic injury including brain injury.

From the Ohio Trauma Registry (OTR):

• Over one fifth of the injuries reported to the OTR involve Traumatic Brain Injuries, Spinal Cord Injuries or Burns.  These categories have high incidence of needing post acute care rehabilitation services.
• TBI: 17.74%  (Spinal Cord injury: 1.36%; Burns 2.93%)

From the Ohio Department of Public Safety:

• Approximately 75 percent of fatal crashes occur within 25 miles of home.
• On average, more than half of all Ohioans who die on our roadways in motor vehicle crashes are not buckled up.
• Statistics show that 41 percent of passenger car occupants and 45 percent of light truck occupants who are involved in fatal crashes are unrestrained.
• Since 1994, it is estimated that safety belts have saved over 147,246 lives.
• Nationally, the leading cause of death among Americans 4 to 33 years old is motor vehicle crashes.
• Air bags do not protect you from rear or side collisions, rollovers, fender-benders, and panic stops.  Only safety belts do.
• Approximately 75 percent of car occupants who are totally ejected in a car crash die.
• Ohio children under 40 pounds or under fours years old must travel in approved car safety seats.  Call 1-800-755-GROW or 1-866-CAR SEAT for details.

Source: Buckle Up! And Beat the Odds!  Ohio Department of Public Safety.  March 2004.

* Development of this section of our website was made possible through a grant from the Ohio Department of Public Safety / EMS Division.