WISQARS¶

WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) tracks injury and violence deaths at national, state, county, and census-tract level. The wisqars module queries the WISQARS API and underlying Socrata datasets.

No API key required.

Datasets¶

Command	Coverage	Source
`mortality`	Fatal injuries by mechanism/intent/demographics	1999–2016 (Socrata)
`national`	Firearm, suicide, homicide, overdose deaths — national	2019–present (WISQARS API)
`state`	State-level injury/violence data	2019–present (WISQARS API)
`county`	County-level injury/violence data	2019–present (WISQARS API)
`tract`	Census-tract-level data	2022–present (WISQARS API)
`query`	Raw SODA query against any WISQARS dataset	—

National data (2019–present)¶

# All firearm deaths, by year
uv run python -m wisqars national --intent FA_Deaths --period year -f table

# Firearm homicides monthly, 2023
uv run python -m wisqars national --intent FA_Homicide --period month --year 2023 -f csv

# All suicide deaths, trailing twelve months
uv run python -m wisqars national --intent All_Suicide --period TTM -f table

# Drug overdose deaths by year
uv run python -m wisqars national --intent Drug_OD --period year -f table

Intent codes for national/state/county:

Code	Description
`FA_Deaths`	All firearm deaths
`FA_Homicide`	Firearm homicides
`FA_Suicide`	Firearm suicides
`All_Homicide`	All homicides (any mechanism)
`All_Suicide`	All suicides (any mechanism)
`Drug_OD`	Drug overdose deaths

State-level data (2019–present)¶

# All states, all firearm deaths, 2023
uv run python -m wisqars state --intent FA_Deaths --year 2023 -f table

# One state
uv run python -m wisqars state --state Texas --intent FA_Deaths --year 2023 -f table
uv run python -m wisqars state --state 48 --intent FA_Deaths --year 2023   # FIPS

# Drug overdose, all states, trailing 12 months
uv run python -m wisqars state --intent Drug_OD --year TTM -f csv

County-level data (2019–present)¶

# All counties in Ohio, firearm deaths, 2023
uv run python -m wisqars county --state Ohio --intent FA_Deaths --year 2023 -f table

# Specific county by partial name match
uv run python -m wisqars county --state Texas --county Harris --intent Drug_OD --year 2023

# All US counties (large output — pipe to CSV)
uv run python -m wisqars county --intent FA_Deaths --year 2023 -f csv > fa-deaths-county-2023.csv

Census-tract level (2022–present)¶

The most granular data available. Only two intents supported at tract level:

# All census tracts in Cook County, IL
uv run python -m wisqars tract --state Illinois --intent All_Homicide --year 2022

# Specific tract by GEOID partial match
uv run python -m wisqars tract --state CA --tract 06037 --intent Drug_OD --year 2022

Note

Census-tract data is only available starting 2022.

Legacy mortality data (1999–2016)¶

The older mortality command queries the Socrata-backed dataset with different intent/mechanism vocabulary:

# Unintentional firearm deaths, all ages, 2010
uv run python -m wisqars mortality \
  --intent Unintentional --mechanism Firearm --year 2010 -f table

# All suicide deaths, female, 2005-2010
uv run python -m wisqars mortality \
  --intent Suicide --sex Female -f csv

# Poisoning deaths (covers most overdoses) 1999–2016
uv run python -m wisqars mortality \
  --mechanism Poisoning --intent Unintentional -f csv

Intent choices (mortality): All Intentions, Unintentional, Suicide, Homicide, Undetermined, Legal intervention/war

Mechanism choices (mortality): All Mechanisms, Firearm, Poisoning, Fall, Motor vehicle traffic, Suffocation, Drowning, Cut/pierce, Fire/hot object or substance, All Other Transport, All Other Specified, Unspecified

Raw SODA query¶

# List available WISQARS Socrata datasets
uv run python -m wisqars list

# Raw query against a specific dataset
uv run python -m wisqars query <dataset_id> \
  --where "state_name='Texas' AND year='2023'" \
  --select "state_name,deaths,crude_rate" \
  -f csv

Python SDK¶

from wisqars.sdk import (
    get_national_data,
    get_state_data,
    get_county_data,
    get_census_tract_data,
    get_mortality,
)

# National firearm deaths by year
rows = get_national_data(intent="FA_Deaths", period="year")

# All states, 2023
rows = get_state_data(intent="FA_Deaths", year="2023")

# Ohio counties
rows = get_county_data(state="Ohio", intent="Drug_OD", year="2023")

# Cook County census tracts
rows = get_census_tract_data(state="Illinois", intent="All_Homicide", year="2022")

Combining WISQARS and WONDER¶

WISQARS (2019–present) complements WONDER (1999–present) at sub-state geography:

# WONDER: firearm deaths by state and year, 1999–2024 (50 years, national picture)
# WISQARS: firearm deaths by county, 2019–present (local picture)

# Typical workflow:
# 1. Use WONDER for long trends and state-level comparisons
# 2. Use WISQARS for county/tract breakdowns within a state
# 3. Merge on state name + year where both overlap (2019–2020)