Unintentional injury—including motor vehicle crashes, falls, and cuts—is a major risk to children’s health and is the leading cause of death for children over 1 year of age. For the NSCH, parents of children aged 5 and under were asked whether their child had required medical attention for an accidental injury over the past year. Overall, over 9 percent of children were reported to have experienced such an injury. Children living in small rural areas appear to be slightly more likely to experience injury than children in urban areas (10.0 versus 9.3 percent, respectively). The injury rate of children living in large rural areas (9.4 percent) is similar to that of children in urban areas.

This slightly higher injury rate in small rural areas is no longer evident once the data are further divided by other demographic variables. For instance, the past-year injury rate among children with family incomes below the Federal poverty level (FPL) is highest in large rural areas (12.0 percent) and lowest in urban areas (6.7 percent); among children with family incomes of 100-199 percent of FPL, rates are highest in small rural areas (12.1 percent) and lowest in large rural areas (7.6 percent). The rates among children with higher family incomes are as varied as those among children with lower family incomes.