In a typical recent year, how many tetanus cases does the whole United States report: a few dozen, a few hundred or a few thousand?
A few dozen, about 27. CDC counted 402 reported cases from 2009 to 2023, an average of 26.8 a year, and 18 in 2023, roughly 1 case for every 18.6 million people (CDC MMWR, April 2026).
These are cases reported to CDC’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System under a standard case definition and collected in a CDC surveillance report published in April 2026. That report ends with 2023, and none of our sources gives a count for 2024 yet, so 2023 is the latest full year on this page. The odds divide the US population printed in the report’s own table by the number of reported cases.
A small number that barely moves
Across those 15 years, the yearly count never fell below 17 or rose above 37. The low came in 2020 and the high in 2012. Averaged over the whole period, that works out to about 1 case for every 12 million people a year. CDC’s surveillance page puts it more simply: fewer than 40 reported cases each year since 2010. As statistics go, it is one of the steadier small numbers around.
The long view is steeper. Since 1947, CDC says, reported tetanus cases have fallen more than 95% and reported deaths more than 99%. Tetanus became a nationally notifiable disease in the 1940s, CDC notes. The US also sits far below the world as a whole: CDC’s report says US incidence was more than 100 times lower than the estimated global incidence of 10.3 cases per million in 2019.
Rare is not mild
Among the 299 cases whose outcome was recorded, 37 people died, a case fatality of 12.4%, or about 1 in 8. The outcome of the other 103 cases is unknown, which is why that figure comes with a range in the Data limits below. Of the 237 patients whose hospital status was recorded, 225, or 94.9%, were hospitalized, CDC’s report says.
Who gets it
The highest rate is at the oldest ages, not the youngest. Adults 80 and older had 0.20 cases per million a year, about 1 in 5 million, roughly four times the rate of 0.05 among children and teens 17 and under, about 1 in 20 million. Older patients also fared worst: case fatality was 30.8% at ages 65 to 79 and 63.3% at 80 and older.
Yet the typical patient is not old. The median age was 40 in 2009 to 2023, down from 49 in 2001 to 2008. Of all 402 cases, 250, or 62.2%, were male.
Most cases trace back to a recent wound. Of 357 cases with wound information, 310, or 86.8%, were associated with an acute wound, and 61.2% of the wounds with a recorded type were punctures.
CDC’s tetanus pages describe who most cases are in, in their own words: “Most cases are in people who either: Never received a tetanus vaccine; Didn’t complete the tetanus primary vaccine series; Didn’t stay up to date with their 10-year booster shots”. CDC’s report had vaccination records for only 173 of the 402 cases; of those, 76, or 43.9%, had no documented dose of a tetanus vaccine.
Data limits
These are cases reported to a passive surveillance system, so some could be missed, though CDC’s report says that because tetanus is a serious disease requiring hospitalization, the underestimation is likely minimal. The latest full year is 2023, and CDC’s surveillance page flags some recent years’ counts as provisional. The 12.4% case fatality uses only cases with a recorded outcome; CDC’s own range runs from 9.2%, if every case with an unknown outcome survived, to 34.8%, if every one died. Deaths on this page are deaths among reported cases, not counts from death certificates, which come from a different system.
The short version
About 27 tetanus cases a year are reported in the whole US: 26.8 on average from 2009 to 2023, and 18 in 2023, roughly 1 in 18.6 million people. When CDC publishes counts for 2024 and later, this page will be rechecked against them.
Last checked: 2026-10-19, against CDC’s MMWR Surveillance Summary on tetanus, 2009 to 2023 (April 2026) and CDC’s Tetanus Surveillance and Trends page. This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 CDC, MMWR Surveillance Summaries 2026;75(No. SS-1), “Tetanus Surveillance, United States, 2009 to 2023” (Hughes, Amin, Rubis), April 16, 2026: Results, Table 1, Table 2, Discussion, Limitations. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/75/ss/ss7501a1.htm . Accessed Oct 19, 2026.
- S2 CDC, “Tetanus Surveillance and Trends”, updated Sept 10, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/tetanus/php/surveillance/index.html . Accessed Oct 19, 2026.
- Method: the “1 in” odds (about 1 in 18.6 million, 1 in 12 million, 1 in 5 million and 1 in 20 million), “about 1 in 8”, “roughly four times”, “about 27” and the 103 cases with an unknown outcome are Book of Odds arithmetic from the CDC counts and rates above.