More than 4,000 Florida children aged 17 and under were hospitalized for firearm injuries between 2018 and 2024, about 1.5 per day, and the burden falls overwhelmingly on a small number of residential ZIP codes concentrated in four metro areas.
The finding comes from hospital billing data obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and analyzed by KFF Health News and The Trace with two local newsrooms, Action News Jax in Jacksonville and WFTV in Orlando. Nearly all of the highest-burden ZIP codes sit in Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, or Tampa Bay, and nearly all of them have large Black or Latino populations.
For families and for the hospitals that serve these neighborhoods, the concentration is the actionable finding. It means prevention and trauma resources have identifiable addresses rather than a statewide average.
Claims Data Draws a Different Map Than Police Records
The methodology is what separates this analysis from the firearm statistics most readers have seen, and the difference is not academic.
The newsrooms used the data hospitals generate to bill insurers and government payers. Those records do not identify patients but do capture where a patient lived, their age and other demographic information, and the nature of the injury. They include injuries that never generate a criminal case, including unintentional shootings and self-inflicted injuries that police data may classify differently or not capture at all.
The analysis grouped children by the ZIP code of residence rather than the ZIP code of the shooting. That choice shapes interpretation. It shows where affected families live, which is the right unit for prevention outreach, but it does not map where incidents occurred.
The data also has a built-in floor. It cannot include children who died at the scene or before reaching a hospital, or who never received medical treatment. The true burden is therefore higher than 4,000, and the figures reported are a minimum rather than a full count. ZIP codes with between one and ten hospitalizations over the period were omitted from the published tables to protect privacy.
Three Jacksonville ZIP Codes Carry a Disproportionate Share
The local numbers give the statewide finding its shape.
Three Jacksonville ZIP codes rank among the ten worst in Florida. ZIP 32209 recorded 79 gunshot wounds among children, ZIP 32208 recorded 46, and ZIP 32210 recorded 34, a combined 159 children across those three areas alone, according to Action News Jax. They sit west of the St. Johns River, in a part of the city divided from the rest along racial and economic lines.
In Central Florida, about 260 of the affected children lived in Orlando. ZIP 32808, which covers Pine Hills, Rosemont and Orlo Vista, recorded the highest number of children treated for gunshot wounds of any residential ZIP code statewide at 62, WFTV reported. A different Orlando ZIP code, 32805, had the highest rate, not the highest count, at 25 children.
Hospital-level figures show the sustained volume behind those totals. UF Health Jacksonville, the only Level I trauma center in northeastern Florida, treated 255 patients for gunshot wounds in 2024, including 32 aged 17 or younger, and 269 in 2025, including 22 under 18.
Dr. Firas Madbak, chief of acute care surgery there, told the reporting team that gun violence "is really an American issue" and that Florida has been affected by it heavily.
Concentration Changes: What Prevention and Trauma Planning Should Look Like
A burden that clusters this tightly has different operational implications than one spread evenly.
For trauma systems, ZIP-level concentration is a resource allocation signal. It indicates which receiving hospitals need pediatric-capable trauma readiness, where blood product supply and pediatric surgical coverage matter most, and which emergency departments should expect penetrating pediatric trauma as a recurring rather than exceptional presentation. Pediatric readiness in emergency departments is independently associated with better survival among injured children. The Trace, which co-reported the analysis, framed the pattern as a child shot roughly every day somewhere in the state.
For families, the evidence-based intervention is narrower and better established than the broader policy debate suggests. Secure storage, meaning firearms stored locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition, is associated with lower risk of unintentional childhood firearm injury and death. That association holds regardless of household views on firearm ownership, which is why pediatricians raise storage rather than ownership in clinical conversations. Free or low-cost cable locks are distributed by many county health departments, sheriff's offices, and children's hospitals in Florida.
Families should also know that a child's exposure is not limited to their own home. Asking whether firearms are stored securely in homes where a child visits or has a sleepover is a routine safety question in the same category as asking about pools or allergies.
The Data Ends in 2024 and Several Questions Remain Open
The analysis covers 2018 through 2024, so it cannot describe what has happened since, and Florida has not published comparable ZIP-level figures for 2025 or 2026.
The dataset also cannot separate intent cleanly in every case, distinguish which injuries involved firearms owned by a household member versus obtained elsewhere, or capture the long-term disability burden that follows a survived gunshot wound. The reporting also notes an accountability gap. State health officials, the governor's office and almost every Jacksonville City Council member declined to discuss the findings with the newsrooms.
What is confirmed is the geography. More than 4,000 children hospitalized over seven years, a rate of about 1.5 a day, concentrated in a small set of residential ZIP codes in four metro areas, with Black and Latino children carrying a disproportionate share.
The families most affected live in a defined set of neighborhoods, and the interventions with the strongest evidence behind them are secure storage at home and pediatric trauma readiness at the hospitals serving those areas. MedicalDaily will report Florida's updated hospitalization figures when the state releases data covering the years after 2024.
Key Questions Answered
What does the data show? More than 4,000 Florida children aged 17 and under were hospitalized for firearm injuries from 2018 through 2024, about 1.5 a day, concentrated in a small number of residential ZIP codes.
Where is the burden highest? Almost all of the highest-burden ZIP codes are in Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, or Tampa Bay. Orlando's 32808 recorded the highest number statewide at 62, and three Jacksonville ZIP codes rank in the state's worst ten.
Where did the data come from? Hospital billing records obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, analyzed by KFF Health News and The Trace with Action News Jax and WFTV.
Does the ZIP code show where shootings happened? No. It shows where the injured child lived, which makes it useful for prevention outreach but not a map of incident locations.
Is 4,000 the complete count? No. It excludes children who died before reaching a hospital or never received treatment, so it is a minimum figure.
What reduces risk in the home? Storing firearms locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition, a practice associated with lower rates of unintentional child firearm injury and death.
Where can Florida families get a free lock? Many county health departments, sheriff's offices, and children's hospitals distribute cable locks at no cost. Availability varies by county.
