Dog Bite Statistics: Injuries, Deaths, Claims and Mail Carrier Attacks

About 4.5 million people in the United States are bitten by dogs each year, most of them children, according to the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) in its 2026 dog bite report ², and CDC says nearly 1 in 5 people bitten needs medical attention ¹. In 2025, insurers paid $1.86 billion on 28,450 dog-related liability claims ², dogs attacked more than 5,200 postal employees ⁶, and from 2011 to 2021 an average of 43 people a year died from being bitten or struck by a dog ⁵.

Every figure below comes from the agency or study that produced it, with the year the data covers. Some of the national injury counts are old because no federal agency has published a newer national dog bite estimate in the same form; where that is the case, the year is stated.

How many people are bitten by dogs each year?

The most cited figure is about 4.5 million bites a year. Triple-I repeats it in its 2026 report ², and CDC’s own dog health page adds that nearly 1 in 5 people bitten requires medical attention ¹. Most bites are never reported to a doctor, an insurer or animal control, so no agency counts them one by one; the 4.5 million figure is an estimate, not a tally.

CDC also notes three risk patterns on that page, last reviewed June 15, 2026 ¹:

• Children are more likely than adults to be bitten, and their injuries tend to be more severe.
• Having a dog in the household is linked to a higher chance of being bitten.
• Adults with two or more dogs at home are five times more likely to be bitten.

How many dog bites end up in the emergency room?

Hundreds of thousands of dog bite injuries are treated in emergency departments each year. Two federal data sets give the national counts:

• 2001, CDC (NEISS-AIP data): an estimated 368,245 people were treated in emergency departments for dog bite injuries, a rate of 129.3 per 100,000 people ³. Roughly 6,000 people (1.8%) were hospitalized, based on 1994 data, the most recent the report had ³.
• 2008, AHRQ (HCUP data): 316,200 emergency department visits and 9,500 hospital stays involved dog bites, a rate of 103.9 visits and 3.1 stays per 100,000 people ⁴. That works out to 866 emergency visits and 26 hospital admissions a day ⁴.

The two numbers come from different data systems (a sample of hospitals for CDC, billing records for AHRQ), so the drop from 2001 to 2008 is not a clean trend line. The AHRQ brief did compare like with like for hospital stays: they rose 86.3% from 1993 to 2008, from 2.0 to 3.1 per 100,000 people ⁴.

Hospital care is expensive. In 2008 the average dog bite inpatient stay cost $18,200, about 50% more than the average injury-related stay ⁴. Private insurance was the primary payer for 44.7% of dog bite emergency visits ⁴.

Who gets bitten: age, sex and where people live

Children are bitten most often, and young children are bitten in the face and head. The data agree on the pattern even though they are years apart:

• In 2001, the injury rate was highest for children aged 5 to 9, and children under 14 accounted for about 154,625 emergency visits, 42.0% of the total ³. Boys were injured at a significantly higher rate than girls ³.
• Among children under 4, 64.9% of injuries were to the head or neck ³.
• In 2008, emergency visit rates were highest for children aged 5 to 9 (199.3 per 100,000) and under 5 (175.0 per 100,000), and 38.0% of all dog bite emergency visits were for patients under 18 ⁴.
• Adults aged 65 to 84 had the highest rate of hospital admission for dog bites, 4.5 per 100,000 ⁴. Older adults are bitten less often but are more likely to be admitted when they are.
• People living in rural areas had dog bite emergency visit rates about four times those in urban areas, and hospital stay rates about three times higher ⁴.

For what these patterns mean for a family, see the guide on when a dog bites a child. Children also get extra time to file a claim in most states: in California, the two years do not start until the child turns 18 ⁹, and in Texas a bitten child has until their 20th birthday to sue ¹⁰. The statute of limitations guide has every state’s rule.

How many people die from dog attacks?

Dog attack deaths are rare, but they increased sharply from 2018 to 2021. CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics counted 468 deaths from being bitten or struck by a dog from 2011 through 2021, an average of 43 a year, based on death certificates (ICD-10 code W54) ⁵. The count excludes deaths from rabies after a dog bite ⁵.

The yearly number ranged from 31 in 2016 to 81 in 2021 ⁵. From 2018 to 2021, deaths more than doubled for both males (15 to 37) and females (20 to 44), and from 2017 on, more women and girls died than men and boys in most years ⁵. CDC had not published a national count past 2021 in that series as of October 2026.

Counts compiled from news reports, which some websites publish, are not the same as these death-certificate figures. They can miss cases or include ones that a medical examiner coded differently, so the CDC series is the one used here.

Dog bite insurance claims, 2016–2025

Homeowners insurers paid $1,862.1 million on dog-related liability claims in 2025, up 18.6% from 2024, according to Triple-I and State Farm ². The number of claims rose 25.6%, from 22,658 to 28,450, while the average cost per claim fell 5.5%, from $69,272 to $65,450 ². The figures include other dog-related injuries such as fractures from being knocked down, not only bites ².

The table shows the national totals for each year from 2016 to 2025.

Over the ten years, the average cost per claim rose 97.0% ². Triple-I attributes the rise to higher medical costs and larger settlements, judgments and jury awards ². These are insurer averages, not typical settlements: they mix small medical-bill claims with large ones, and they leave out bites that never became a homeowners claim. The dog bite settlements guide explains what the averages can and cannot tell you, and the insurance guide covers what policies pay for.

California had the most claims in 2025 (2,830, up from 2,417 in 2024), and Florida was second with 2,347 ². New York had the highest average cost per claim at $92,154, followed by Connecticut at $87,751 ². The table lists the ten states with the most claims and each state’s liability rule.

The state with the most claims is not necessarily the riskiest; claim counts track population, dog ownership and how many dog owners carry homeowners or renters insurance. The liability rule matters too. California’s statute makes an owner liable for a bite in a public place or on private property where the victim was lawfully present, regardless of the dog’s history ⁹, while Texas has no dog bite statute and relies on the owner’s knowledge of the dog’s dangerous tendencies or negligence ¹¹. The dog bite laws by state guide compares all 51 jurisdictions.

Dog attacks on mail carriers

Dogs attacked more than 5,200 U.S. Postal Service employees in 2025, according to the USPS release of May 28, 2026 ⁶. That was down from more than 6,000 in 2024 ⁷.

Los Angeles led all cities in 2025 with 70 attacks, followed by Dallas (50), Denver (45), Houston (44), Chicago (43), St. Louis (40), Indianapolis (35), San Diego (32), San Antonio (31) and Cleveland (30) ⁶. By state, the 2025 ranking was ⁶:

1. California: 673 attacks.
2. Texas: 358.
3. Ohio: 287.
4. New York: 269.
5. Pennsylvania: 267.
6. Illinois: 260.
7. Florida: 183.
8. Missouri: 182.
9. Michigan: 174.
10. Indiana: 159.

In 2024, California also ranked first (701), followed by Texas (438), Ohio (350), Illinois (344) and New York (322) ⁷. A carrier bitten on the job usually has a federal workers’ compensation claim and may also have a claim against the dog’s owner. California’s statute expressly treats a person on private property to perform a duty under postal regulations as lawfully there ⁹. The dog bite at work guide covers how those claims fit together.

What the data says about breeds

No federal agency publishes bite rates by breed, and the studies that count breeds cannot rank breeds by risk. The best-known example is a 2000 study by CDC and veterinary researchers of 238 dog bite deaths from 1979 to 1998 ⁸. It found at least 25 breeds involved, with pit bull-type dogs and Rottweilers involved in more than half of the deaths ⁸.

The authors drew limits around their own finding. They wrote that other breeds “may bite and cause fatalities at higher rates,” that a dog’s breed is hard to determine with certainty, and that fatal attacks are a small share of bite injuries and “should not be the primary factor driving public policy concerning dangerous dogs” ⁸. The deaths were identified from news accounts and a humane society registry, not death certificates ⁸.

The same study found that most fatal attacks involved unrestrained dogs on the owner’s own property: 58% of the 227 cases with data, compared with 24% involving loose dogs off the property ⁸. For how states regulate breeds, see breed-specific legislation; for how states regulate individual dogs after an attack, see dangerous dog laws.

How to read dog bite statistics

Each data source measures something different, so the numbers do not add up to one picture:

1. Estimates of all bites. The 4.5 million figure includes bites never treated by a doctor ².
2. Emergency and hospital data. These count medical visits, not people or incidents, and the latest national federal estimates cover 2001 and 2008 ^{3 4}.
3. Death certificates. These capture deaths coded to dog bites or strikes, through 2021 ⁵.
4. Insurance claims. These include only incidents that became homeowners claims, and they include some non-bite injuries ².
5. USPS counts. These cover attacks on postal employees only ⁶.

If you were bitten, the statistics matter less than your state’s rule and deadline. The dog bite claim checker walks through both, and every state’s law is listed on the states page. For first steps after a bite, including when to see a doctor, see what to do after a dog bite.

Questions

How many people die from dog bites each year in the US?

Death certificates recorded 468 deaths from being bitten or struck by a dog from 2011 through 2021, an average of 43 a year, according to CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The yearly count ranged from 31 in 2016 to 81 in 2021⁵.

What percentage of dog bites need medical treatment?

CDC says nearly 1 in 5 people bitten by a dog requires medical attention¹. Any bite that breaks the skin is worth showing to a doctor, because of infection and rabies risk.

Which state has the most dog bite insurance claims?

California, with 2,830 dog-related homeowners claims in 2025, followed by Florida with 2,347, according to Triple-I and State Farm. New York had the highest average cost per claim, $92,154².

Which city has the most dog attacks on mail carriers?

Los Angeles, with 70 attacks on Postal Service employees in 2025, followed by Dallas (50) and Denver (45), according to the USPS release of May 28, 2026⁶.

Are dog bites increasing?

Some measures rose in recent years and others fell. Insurance claims rose from 22,658 in 2024 to 28,450 in 2025², and recorded deaths rose from 2018 to 2021⁵, while attacks on postal workers fell from more than 6,000 in 2024 to more than 5,200 in 2025⁶⁷.

Sources

1. Dogs (Healthy Pets, Healthy People), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Checked 15 June 2026.
2. Spotlight on: Dog bite liability, Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I). Checked 17 October 2026.
3. Nonfatal Dog Bite-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, United States, 2001 (MMWR 2003;52(26):605-610), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Checked 4 July 2003.
4. Emergency Department Visits and Inpatient Stays Involving Dog Bites, 2008 (HCUP Statistical Brief #101), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Checked 1 November 2010.
5. QuickStats: Number of Deaths Resulting from Being Bitten or Struck by a Dog, by Sex, United States, 2011-2021 (MMWR 2023;72:999), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Checked 8 September 2023.
6. Postal Service Names Top Cities and States for Dog Attacks on Mail Carriers, United States Postal Service. Checked 28 May 2026.
7. U.S. Postal Service Releases Dog Bite National Rankings, United States Postal Service. Checked 29 May 2025.
8. Sacks JJ et al. Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2000;217(6):836-840, PubMed (National Library of Medicine). Checked 15 September 2000.
9. Cal. Civ. Code § 3342, California Legislature. Checked 17 October 2026.
10. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code ch. 16 (§ 16.003), Texas Legislature. Checked 17 October 2026.
11. Marshall v. Ranne, 511 S.W.2d 255 (Tex. 1974), CourtListener (Supreme Court of Texas opinion). Checked 17 October 2026.