Making visible the invisible since 1982

Call Us:
(860) 219-0291

Primary Navigation

Facts & Statistics

BIAC is the ONLY organization in Connecticut that offers support to brain injury survivors and provides prevention education completely free of charge.

Every 21 seconds in the United States, someone sustains a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) ***

leading causes of tbi

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in the United States According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014)

  • 2.8 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury every year.
  • From 2006 to 2014, the number of TBI-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths increased by 53%.
  • In 2014, an average of 155 people in the United States died each day from injuries that include a TBI.
  • More than 56,000 people die every year as a result of TBI.
  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI) disables SIX times more people each year than spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, and breastcancer combined.
  • 5.3 million Americans currently have a long-term or lifelong need for help to perform activities of daily living as a result of TBI.
  • From 2001 to 2009, the rate of ED visits for sports and recreation-related injuries with a diagnosis of concussion or TBI, alone or in combinations with other injuries, rose 57% among children (age 20 or younger).
  • 300,000 sport and recreation-related concussions are diagnosed nationwide each year with a possible seven times more going undiagnosed.
  • From 2006 to 2010, falls were the leading cause of TBI, accounting for 40% of all TBI’s in the United States that resulted in an ED visit, hospitalization or death. Falls disproportionately affect the youngest and oldest age groups.
  • About 10% of all TBI’s are due to assaults.
  • Motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of TBI-related death for children and young adults ages 5-24 years.
  • Young children, teenagers and seniors are most likely to sustain a TBI.
  • Although everyone is at risk, males are approx. 1.5 times more likely than females to sustain a TBI and 3 times as likely to die.
  • The average high school lineman takes the equivalent of a 25-mile an hour car crash in hits to the head each season

*** These numbers do NOT take into account other types of Acquired Brain Injury from medical conditions such as stroke, aneurysms, encephalitis or other infectious diseases, anoxix/hypoxic injury (lack of oxygen to the brain), toxic exposure, and surgical procedures.