Cooking injuries statistics show two related safety problems: residential cooking fires in the United States and cooking-related burns treated in hospitals around the world. U.S. fire-department reporting estimated 167,800 residential building cooking fires in 2023, with 125 deaths and 2,500 injuries. In the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Burn Registry, cooking-related burns made up 24.73% of 6,965 burn admissions recorded across 17 countries during 2017–2020. These figures measure different outcomes and populations, so they should not be combined into one worldwide injury rate.
Table of contents
- U.S. residential cooking fires
- Deaths and injuries from cooking fires
- Property loss over time
- Hospitalized cooking-related burns worldwide
- Children and cooking-related burns
- What the patterns mean for home cooking
U.S. residential cooking fires
The U.S. Fire Administration’s Residential building cooking fire trends series covers U.S. residential building cooking fires from 2014 through 2023. The counts are national estimates based on local fire-department incident reporting. They describe fires reported to fire services, not every kitchen incident or every burn that occurs at home.
The annual count moved up and down rather than following a straight line. There were 189,800 residential building cooking fires in 2014 and 193,400 in 2015. The total then fell to 183,300 in 2016 before rising to 191,800 in 2017 and 192,700 in 2018. It declined to 178,100 in 2019, then reached 192,600 in 2020.
The later years were lower than the 2020 total: 170,000 fires in 2021, 178,600 in 2022, and 167,800 in 2023. The 2023 estimate was the lowest annual count in this 10-year series. The data show a substantial number of residential cooking fires every year, even when the annual total changes considerably.
| Year | U.S. residential building cooking fires |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 189,800 |
| 2015 | 193,400 |
| 2016 | 183,300 |
| 2017 | 191,800 |
| 2018 | 192,700 |
| 2019 | 178,100 |
| 2020 | 192,600 |
| 2021 | 170,000 |
| 2022 | 178,600 |
| 2023 | 167,800 |
These counts are best read as a frequency measure. They do not say how likely an individual household is to experience a cooking fire, because the dataset does not provide household exposure, cooking hours, appliance use, or population-specific rates.
Deaths and injuries from cooking fires
USFA estimated 4,125 injuries from U.S. residential building cooking fires in 2014. The estimated injury count was 3,775 in 2015, 3,475 in 2016, 3,300 in 2017, and 3,100 in 2018. It rose to 3,550 in 2019, then was estimated at 3,175 in 2020, 3,000 in 2021, 2,350 in 2022, and 2,500 in 2023.
The series therefore includes an estimated 2,350 to 4,125 cooking-fire injuries in each year shown. These are injury estimates associated with residential building cooking fires, not a census of cuts, minor burns, falls, or other kitchen injuries that may never generate a fire-department incident record.
Cooking fires also caused 250 deaths in 2014 according to the USFA series. The recorded annual totals were 165 deaths in 2015, 170 in 2016, 170 in 2017, 170 in 2018, and 150 in 2019. The series recorded 140 deaths in 2020, 135 in 2021, 100 in 2022, and 125 in 2023.
| Year | Deaths | Estimated injuries |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 250 | 4,125 |
| 2015 | 165 | 3,775 |
| 2016 | 170 | 3,475 |
| 2017 | 170 | 3,300 |
| 2018 | 170 | 3,100 |
| 2019 | 150 | 3,550 |
| 2020 | 140 | 3,175 |
| 2021 | 135 | 3,000 |
| 2022 | 100 | 2,350 |
| 2023 | 125 | 2,500 |
The death and injury series should be kept distinct. A year with fewer reported cooking fires can still have a different pattern of deaths or injuries, because severity varies from incident to incident. The supplied USFA figures do not identify the cause, appliance, room, age group, or activity for each individual event.
Property loss over time
USFA reported residential cooking-fire property loss in constant 2023 dollars, which makes the values inflation-adjusted to a common dollar basis. The loss was $703.2 million in 2014 and $636.1 million in 2015. It fell to $544.5 million in 2016 and $518.2 million in 2017, then increased to $548.3 million in 2018.
The reported loss was $519.5 million in 2019 and $548.0 million in 2020. It reached $555.7 million in 2021, was $544.0 million in 2022, and rose to $572.7 million in 2023. These are property-loss estimates, not total economic costs: the figures do not quantify medical care, lost work, temporary housing, emotional harm, or uninsured losses separately.
The 2023 property-loss estimate was higher than the estimates for 2019, 2020, and 2022 even though the number of cooking fires was lower than in those years. That comparison illustrates why fire frequency and financial damage answer different questions. The dataset does not support attributing the difference to any particular type of appliance, building, or fire behavior.
Hospitalized cooking-related burns worldwide
The WHO Global Burn Registry report on cooking- and cookstove-related burn injuries analyzed voluntary hospital registry admissions from 17 countries during 2017–2020. The registry contained 1,723 cooking-related burn patients, representing 24.73% of 6,965 burn admissions in the registry during that period.
This is not a population-representative count of all cooking injuries. It reflects patients admitted to participating hospitals and the countries contributing data. The country mix and registry coverage limit direct comparisons with the U.S. national fire estimates and with countries outside the registry.
The median age of cooking-related burn patients was 11 years, with an interquartile range of 2–35 years. Children younger than 5 years accounted for 704 of the 1,723 patients, or 40.85%. Females represented 954 patients, or 55.37%. Middle-income countries contributed 1,284 patients, or 74.52% of the registry’s cooking-related burn cases.
Scalds were recorded in 1,062 of the 1,723 cooking-related burns, or 61.64%. The median burn size was 15% of total body surface area, with an interquartile range of 10%–30%. Hands were injured in 759 cases, or 44.05%. Surgery was performed during the index hospitalization for 751 patients, or 43.49%. The registry recorded 279 deaths among these 1,723 patients, or 16.19%.
The hospital data emphasize severity among admitted patients. A large share of scalds, hand injuries, surgery, and deaths in a hospital registry cannot be used to estimate the probability that any person cooking at home will suffer one of those outcomes. It does show how serious the cases can be when cooking-related burns reach participating hospitals.
Children and cooking-related burns
The WHO Global Burn Registry study of cooking-related burn injuries in children recorded 2,957 pediatric burn patients from 17 countries during 2018–2021. Cooking-related burns accounted for 974 of those pediatric burns, or 32.9%.
Boys accounted for 532 of the 974 pediatric cooking-related burns, or 54.6%. Children aged 0–2 years accounted for 489 cases, or 50.2%. Accidental contact caused 729 cases, or 74.8%, while deliberate touch caused 108 cases, or 11.1%.
Liquefied petroleum was the recorded fuel in 293 of the 974 pediatric cooking-related burns, or 30.1%. The median total body surface area affected was 15.0%, with an interquartile range of 10.0%–25.0%. Overall mortality was 83 of 974 pediatric cooking-related burn patients, or 8.5%.
Kerosene-related pediatric cooking burns had the highest reported mortality among the listed fuels: 8 deaths among 50 cases, or 16.0%. This fuel-specific figure is based on a small subgroup and should not be generalized to all cooking injuries or all kerosene exposure.
The two WHO periods and study populations should not be merged. The first report covers cooking-related burn patients of all recorded ages during 2017–2020; the pediatric study covers children during 2018–2021. Their percentages use different denominators, and both studies analyze voluntary hospital registry admissions rather than all community injuries.
What the patterns mean for home cooking
The U.S. series measures residential building cooking fires, deaths, injuries, and property loss from 2014–2023. The WHO studies measure hospitalized burn cases in participating countries during 2017–2020 and pediatric cases during 2018–2021. Together, they show why “cooking injuries” is a broad category rather than a single statistic.
For fire prevention, the USFA figures establish that residential cooking fires remained in the hundreds of thousands annually throughout the period shown. For burn severity, the WHO registry records show that scalds were the largest listed burn mechanism in the all-age registry, while accidental contact was the largest listed pediatric mechanism. Children under 5 represented 40.85% of all-age registry cooking-burn patients, and children aged 0–2 represented 50.2% of pediatric cooking-related burns in the pediatric study.
The measurements also point to different safety questions. Fire counts and property loss describe incidents affecting homes and belongings. Hospital admissions describe people whose burns were serious enough to appear in participating facilities. Neither source provides a complete count of everyday kitchen cuts, minor contact burns, or unreported near-misses. Keeping those boundaries visible is essential when using cooking injuries statistics to understand risk at home.