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Home » Consumer Information » Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal Cord Injury Statistics

Case numbers

Every year in the US, about 11,000 people survive a traumatic spinal cord injury. The total number of spinal cord injury patients currently living in the US is estimated at 253,000.

Age range

Since the year 2000, adults with a mean age of 38 years old are most likely to suffer from spinal cord injury. People 60 years old and above make up only 11.5 percent of these cases.

Sex

55.6 percent more males experience spinal cord injury than females.

Race

Since the year 2000, 63 percent of spinal cord injury victims have been white, 22.7 percent were black, and 11.8 percent were Latino.

Injury causes

Cause
Percent of Total Accidents

Auto accidents
46.9

Falls
23.7

Violence
13.7

Sports
8.7

Other
7

Injury severity

The most common form of spinal cord injury is partial quadriplegia, occurring 34.1 percent of the time. Complete paraplegia is next in line at 23 percent, followed by partial paraplegia at 18.5 percent and complete quadriplegia at 18.3 percent. Less than one percent of spinal cord injury victims were able recover fully upon departure from the hospital.

Job status

64.2 percent of people with spinal cord injury held occupations when their injury occurred. After a period of recovery, those diagnosed with paraplegia fared much better than those with quadriplegia in terms of retaining a job post-injury. Ten years after the accident, 32.4 percent of paraplegics were reportedly working, and 24.2 percent of quadriplegics were employed.

Living situation

88.1 percent of spinal cord injury victims move into private residences, while only 5.4 percent reside in nursing homes. All others end up living in hospitals, group homes, or some other nonconventional facility.

Cost of care

Depending on age and level of injury, annual health costs for a spinal cord injury victim vary. For instance, a 50-year-old who suffers from partial paraplegia may accrue $472,000 in healthcare expenses during their lifetime, while a 25-year-old with complete quadriplegia could cost as much as $2.9 million to care for over their lifespan.

Life expectancy

Over the last ten years, the life expectancy of spinal cord injury victims has consistently increased. In fact, young people who have incurred minor damage are projected to live just as long as their healthy counterparts. The odds of death are greater during the year following the injury, especially for those with high cervical wounds and related multiorgan injuries. In years past, the primary cause of death in spinal cord injury patients was renal (kidney) failure, but improvements in the urological field have considerably reduced the chances of genitourinary complications. At this point in time, pneumonia, pulmonary emboli (lung blood clot), and septicemia (bloodstream infection) are common contributors to the spinal cord injury fatality rate.