More than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the United States, and the true number is likely higher. The CDC reports that over 6 million Americans report animal bites annually, with dogs responsible for the vast majority. About 1.6 million of those people seek medical attention, while millions more treat minor bites at home and never report them.
The Full Scale of Dog Bites in the U.S.
Official statistics capture only a fraction of dog bites. Community surveys have consistently found that roughly six times more bites occur than those requiring medical care, and only about one in three people who are bitten seek any form of treatment. Hospital admission records, which are sometimes used to estimate bite rates, undercount even more dramatically. One UK study found that just 0.6% of self-reported bites resulted in a hospital stay, meaning hospital data misses the overwhelming majority of incidents.
Emergency departments treated approximately 316,200 dog bite visits in the most recent comprehensive federal tally, with about 2.5% of those patients admitted for inpatient care. That admission rate is notably low compared to the 8% average for all ER visits, reflecting that most bites, while painful and distressing, don’t require surgery or overnight treatment.
Fatal Attacks Are Rising
Dog bite fatalities in the U.S. have climbed sharply over the past several years. CDC mortality data recorded 127 fatal dog attacks in 2024, the highest single-year total ever documented. That represents a 165% increase from 2019, when 48 deaths were recorded, and a 263% increase from 2018’s total of 35. The year-over-year trend has been consistently upward: 62 deaths in 2020, 81 in 2021, and 98 in 2022.
The reasons behind this increase aren’t fully settled, but the pattern coincides with a surge in dog ownership and adoption during and after the pandemic, along with disruptions to training and socialization during lockdowns.
Who Gets Bitten Most Often
Children are disproportionately affected. Kids account for about 34.8% of all dog bite incidents despite making up a much smaller share of the population. Elderly adults, by contrast, represent just 4.7% of bite victims. The most serious injuries requiring hospital treatment typically involve a young child and a dog that belongs to the family, a friend, or a neighbor. Bites from unfamiliar strays get more attention in the news, but familiar dogs in home settings cause the majority of severe injuries to children.
Injury patterns differ between men and women. Males experience fractures at a slightly higher rate (10.5% vs. 7.9%), while females are more likely to sustain lacerations. Males also suffer far more genital injuries, likely reflecting differences in how men and women physically interact with dogs and position themselves relative to the animal.
Global Numbers and Rabies Risk
Worldwide, dog bites carry a far deadlier consequence: rabies. The World Health Organization estimates 59,000 people die from rabies each year globally, with dogs responsible for 99% of human rabies transmission. The vast majority of these deaths occur in Africa and Asia, where access to post-exposure treatment is limited and stray dog populations are large and unvaccinated.
In the U.S., rabies from dog bites is extremely rare thanks to widespread pet vaccination. Around 100,000 Americans receive post-exposure rabies treatment annually as a precaution after animal bites or scratches, but actual rabies deaths in the country typically number in the low single digits per year.
The Financial Cost of Dog Bites
U.S. insurers paid out $1.57 billion in dog-related injury claims in 2024, spread across 22,658 claims. The average cost per claim reached $69,272, up from $58,545 the year before. These figures, reported by the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm, include homeowners and renters insurance payouts for medical bills, lost wages, and legal settlements. The rising average reflects both increasing medical costs and larger legal judgments in severe bite cases.
Why Breed Alone Doesn’t Predict Risk
Pit bull-type dogs appear more frequently in statistics on severe and fatal attacks, but the American Veterinary Medical Association cautions against reading too much into breed-specific data. The variation in behavior within any single breed is substantial enough that knowing a dog’s breed alone doesn’t reliably predict whether it will bite. Several confounding factors distort breed statistics: visual breed identification by witnesses is often inaccurate, people are predisposed to label an aggressive dog as a pit bull type, and owners of stigmatized breeds are statistically more likely to engage in behaviors (like training dogs for aggression) that increase bite risk.
Larger dogs of any breed cause more serious injuries simply because they’re bigger. And the factors that most strongly predict a dangerous bite have less to do with genetics than with the dog’s environment: whether it’s been neutered, how it was trained, whether it’s supervised around children, and how its owner manages it. Breed-specific bans, which some cities have adopted, have not been shown to reduce the rate or severity of bite injuries in the communities that implement them.
The clearest risk profile for a serious bite involves a young child, an unneutered dog, and a lack of adult supervision. Responsible ownership and active supervision remain the most effective ways to prevent bites regardless of breed.