How Many People Die From Choking Every Year?

Picture a Sunday lunch in a care home. The roast beef has been cut into pieces, the gravy is warm, and the dining room is full of chatter. At one table an 84-year-old man with early dementia takes a piece of meat that is a little too large, chews it twice and swallows. He does not cough. He goes quiet, puts a hand to his throat, and his face begins to change colour. A carer is standing three metres away, serving pudding.

What happens in the next four minutes decides everything. If someone notices and knows what to do, he will be back at the table within the hour, shaken but fine. If nobody notices, or nobody knows how to give back blows and abdominal thrusts, he may become one of the thousands of people who die from choking every year.

Around 170,000 people die every day worldwide, a total you can watch rising on our live counter. Choking is a small part of that number, but it is one of the most preventable: the treatment needs no equipment, no hospital and no medicine, only a person nearby who knows the steps. This article looks at how many people die from choking, who is most at risk, the foods involved and the first aid that works.

The headline number

Choking deaths are recorded as "inhalation and ingestion of food" or "other objects" causing obstruction of the airway (codes W79 and W80 in the international classification of diseases). Countries count them reasonably well, but there is no recent official global total.

In the United States, the National Safety Council reports 5,923 choking deaths in 2024, a rate of about 1.7 per 100,000 people, making choking one of the leading causes of preventable injury death. Worldwide, the Global Burden of Disease study estimated around 162,000 deaths from choking on a foreign object in 2013. That is an older estimate, and a later GBD analysis of the wider "foreign bodies" category suggests the global rate has been falling, so the true current figure is probably somewhat lower.

Time period	United States (5,923 a year)	World (GBD 2013, about 162,000 a year)
Per year	5,923	about 162,000
Per month	about 494	about 13,500
Per week	about 114	about 3,100
Per day	about 16	about 444
Per hour	about 0.7	about 18
Every	89 minutes	3 minutes

So in the US, someone dies from choking roughly every hour and a half. Across the world, on the older global estimate, it is every few minutes.

Choking compared with other everyday accidents

Choking rarely gets the attention of road crashes or drowning, but in rich countries it kills on a similar scale to many causes people worry about far more.

Cause of preventable death (US, latest NSC data)	Approximate deaths per year
Poisoning (mainly drug overdoses)	tens of thousands
Falls	over 40,000
Motor vehicle crashes	over 40,000
Choking	5,923
Drowning	more than 4,000
Fires and burns	about 3,000

The lifetime odds of an American dying from choking on food are roughly 1 in 2,500 to 1 in 3,000, as we set out in what are the odds of dying from everyday causes. That makes it more likely than dying in a fire, and far more likely than being struck by lightning. For the related accidents, see our guides to how many people die from falls every day and how many people drown every day.

Who dies from choking: mostly older people

The idea of choking as a danger mainly for toddlers is only half right. Young children are at real risk, but the overwhelming majority of choking deaths happen at the other end of life. The NSC says choking death rates are low for most ages and then rise rapidly from about age 71.

Age group	Choking risk	Main reasons
Babies and under-5s	Elevated	Small airways, still learning to chew, put objects in mouths
Children 5 to 14	Low	Better chewing and coughing reflexes
Adults 15 to 64	Low	Usually linked to alcohol, rushing, talking while eating
65 to 74	Rising	Dentures, medicines, weaker swallowing
75 and over	Highest by far	Dysphagia, dementia, stroke, frailty

The pattern in the UK is the same. An analysis of ONS figures for England and Wales by the first aid trainer CE Safety found that in 2022 people over 50 accounted for about 90% of deaths from choking on food. Deaths among over-65s rose from 192 in 2021 to 256 in 2022, and most of those deaths were recorded in hospitals and care homes.

This is why choking sits close to other risks of very old age, such as falls and pneumonia. You can see how the causes of death shift with age on our 70 to 84 age group page and 85 plus age group page.

United Kingdom: how many die

The Office for National Statistics counts choking deaths for England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland publish their own figures). Using deaths where choking was the underlying cause, the CE Safety analysis of ONS data for 2018 to 2022 found:

Measure (England and Wales, 2018 to 2022)	Figure
Deaths from choking on food or small objects	1,399 over five years
Of which choking on food	1,097 (about 219 a year)
Of which other small objects	302 (about 60 a year)
Deaths from choking on food in 2022	276
Deaths from other objects in 2022	83
Share of 2022 food choking deaths aged over 50	about 90%

That works out to roughly 280 to 360 deaths a year in England and Wales where choking was recorded as the main cause. The real number of people who die after choking is higher. When ONS counts every death certificate that mentions choking, including as a contributing factor, the 2022 total rises to 512 food-related and 646 other-object deaths. ONS gives the example of a person with dementia who has difficulty swallowing and chokes: the death may be registered with dementia as the underlying cause and choking as a secondary one. See our United Kingdom page for the wider picture of deaths in Britain.

The dementia and dysphagia link

Dysphagia, the medical term for difficulty swallowing, is the single biggest reason older people choke. It is common after a stroke, in Parkinson's disease, in motor neurone disease and, above all, in dementia. As dementia progresses, people can forget to chew properly, hold food in their mouth, or lose the coordination that normally closes the airway when they swallow.

Condition	Why it raises choking risk
Dementia	Forgetting to chew, eating too fast, losing swallowing coordination
Stroke	Weakness of the throat and tongue muscles
Parkinson's disease	Slower, less coordinated swallowing
Motor neurone disease	Progressive weakness of swallowing muscles
Poor dentition or loose dentures	Food not broken down properly
Sedating medicines	Reduced alertness and cough reflex

Repeated small episodes of food or drink going "the wrong way" also cause aspiration pneumonia, which kills many more older people than sudden choking does. Care homes and families supporting someone with dementia can ask the GP for a referral to a speech and language therapist, who can assess swallowing and recommend texture-modified food and drinks. Dementia is now among the leading causes of death in many rich countries, and our article on how dementia deaths have doubled in 20 years explains why.

Children and choking

Choking deaths in young children are rare in absolute numbers, but each one is devastating and many are preventable. The American Academy of Pediatrics has long warned that food is the most common cause of choking in young children, and in England and Wales the CE Safety analysis found a handful of food-choking deaths among under-5s over five years. For the bigger picture of child deaths, see our under-5 age group page.

Higher-risk foods for young children	Safer way to serve
Whole grapes, cherry tomatoes, blueberries	Cut lengthways into quarters
Sausages and hot dogs	Cut lengthways, then into small pieces
Whole nuts	Avoid under 5; use ground nuts or smooth nut butter
Popcorn	Avoid for young children
Hard sweets and marshmallows	Avoid for young children
Raw carrot and apple	Grate, cook until soft, or cut into thin strips
Chunks of meat or cheese	Cut into small pieces or thin strips

Small objects are the other big risk: coins, button batteries, magnets, small toy parts and balloons. Button batteries are especially dangerous because, as well as blocking the airway or food pipe, they can burn through tissue within hours.

The foods most often involved in adults

For adults, the classic choking food is meat, especially steak and other chunks that are hard to chew. Bread, dry foods and sticky foods follow. Choking in younger adults is often linked to alcohol, eating quickly, or laughing and talking with a full mouth. In older adults, dry or crumbly textures, mixed textures (such as soup with lumps) and sticky foods are a particular problem for anyone with swallowing difficulties.

Common factor in adult choking	Why it matters
Large pieces of meat	Hard to chew, easy to swallow whole
Bread and dry foods	Can form a sticky mass in the throat
Alcohol	Dulls the swallowing and cough reflexes
Eating fast or while talking	Food reaches the airway before swallowing finishes
Eating alone	No one there to help

The first aid that saves lives

Choking is unusual among causes of death because ordinary people, not doctors, save most of the lives. The NHS and St John Ambulance teach the same simple sequence. The key sign of severe choking is that the person cannot cough, speak, cry or breathe. If they can cough, encourage them to keep coughing, as that is the body's best way to clear the blockage.

Step	Adults and children over 1	Babies under 1
1	Encourage coughing if they can	Check their mouth; remove anything you can see easily
2	Up to 5 back blows between the shoulder blades, leaning them forward	Up to 5 back blows, baby face down along your thigh with the head supported
3	Up to 5 abdominal thrusts (stand behind, fist above the belly button, pull sharply in and up)	Up to 5 chest thrusts with two fingers in the middle of the chest
4	Call 999 (or 911) if still blocked	Call 999 (or 911) if still blocked
5	Repeat back blows and thrusts until help arrives	Repeat back blows and chest thrusts
If they become unresponsive	Start CPR	Start CPR

Never give abdominal thrusts to a baby under 1, and anyone who has had abdominal thrusts should be checked by a doctor afterwards, because the thrusts can cause internal injury. If you are alone and choking, call 999 and try to give yourself abdominal thrusts with your fist, or by pushing your upper abdomen against the back of a firm chair.

A short first aid course, often free or cheap through St John Ambulance, the British Red Cross or local NHS trusts, teaches these steps hands-on in an hour or two. For carers of older relatives, it is one of the most valuable hours they can spend.

The bottom line

Choking kills about 5,900 people a year in the United States, around 300 a year in England and Wales as an underlying cause (and many more as a contributing one), and on the last global estimate roughly 160,000 people worldwide. Most of them are over 70, many have dementia or another condition that affects swallowing, and a smaller but heartbreaking share are young children.

Unlike most causes of death on this site, the cure for choking is in the hands of whoever happens to be standing nearby. Knowing five back blows and five thrusts is free, and it works.

While you were reading

This article takes about 12 minutes to read. In that time, on the older global estimate, around four people worldwide died from choking. In the United States, where one person dies from choking roughly every 90 minutes, there is about a one in eight chance that someone choked to death while you read. Over the same 12 minutes, roughly 1,400 people died from all causes. You can watch the total rise second by second on the live death counter or see the day so far on deaths today.

Sources: National Safety Council, Injury Facts (choking deaths and rates, 2024); Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 and GBD 2019 analysis of foreign bodies; Office for National Statistics ad hoc releases and freedom of information responses on deaths due to and involving choking (ICD-10 W79 and W80), England and Wales; CE Safety analysis of ONS choking deaths, 2018 to 2022; NHS guidance on choking; St John Ambulance first aid guidance; American Academy of Pediatrics guidance on choking prevention in children. Figures for different countries use different definitions and years, so compare them with care.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not medical advice. It does not replace hands-on first aid training. In an emergency, call 999 in the UK or 911 in the US.