Official Records Map
Official Bee Incident Burden Across the Americas
This page shows larger official and agency-reported bee incident totals that cannot be represented as one pin per case on the individual incident map. U.S. national hospital surveillance is shown separately from the country-level response and health totals south of the border.
Important: These datasets measure different things. Some specifically identify Africanized-bee responses, while others report bee accidents, sting deaths, or combined wasp/hornet/bee injuries. Honey Bee Awareness keeps those categories separate rather than combining them into a single total.
4.05 million estimated bee-related U.S. ER visits, 2001-2025
Current cumulative estimate derived from the published national bee-specific annual average. This is not a newly measured count, an Africanized-bee-only count, or a collection of individual location-based cases that can be placed on the map one by one. The underlying study covered nonfatal, unintentional, non-work-related injuries and therefore does not include deaths, work-related injuries, or incidents that never resulted in ER treatment.
Current cumulative estimate derived from the published national bee-specific annual average. This is not a newly measured count, an Africanized-bee-only count, or a collection of individual location-based cases that can be placed on the map one by one. The underlying study covered nonfatal, unintentional, non-work-related injuries and therefore does not include deaths, work-related injuries, or incidents that never resulted in ER treatment.
Live data: The figures below are rendered from the central HBA evidence registry. Comparable records are grouped by measurement type and time period. Fire-service response totals are kept separate from health-surveillance totals.
Multi-Year Official Response Totals
≈137,900
Costa Rica bee emergencies
Approximate cumulative national fire-service total, 2010-2020.
74,910
Panama Africanized-bee emergency responses
Cumulative national fire-service total, 2018-May 2026.
Multi-Year Official Health Totals
336,480
Brazil reported bee accidents
2000-2025. An additional 24,137 cases were reported January-August 2026.
12,290
Mexico X23 injury cases in 2023
Combined category; not bee-only and not Africanized-only.
1,392
Mexico reported bee-sting deaths
1986-2026. Mortality total only; not a total incident count.
Current scope: Colombia and other countries are being reworked from agency-level annual records. They will be added back only when a defensible cumulative total can be shown without mixing unlike datasets.
Official Totals Currently Shown
| Country / Area | Metric | Period | Reported Count | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Estimated cumulative bee-related emergency-department visits through the latest completed calendar year | 2001-2025 | 4.05 million estimated visits | Calculation: 1,620,796 measured/estimated for 2001-2010 + 15 years x 162,080 published annual average for 2011-2025 = 4,051,996. This is a cumulative estimate, not a newly measured case count. The latest published bee-specific national study period ends in 2010. |
| United States | Published bee-related emergency-department visits | 2001-2010 | 1,620,796 visits | Same dataset as annual-average row. Do not add the two together. Study excludes work-related injuries. |
| United States | Estimated annual noncanine bite-and-sting emergency-department visits | 2011-2015 | 1.17 million visits per year | This is broader than bees and must not be labeled as a bee-only total. |
| United States | Insect share of noncanine bite-and-sting emergency-department injuries | 2011-2015 | 71% | The published abstract does not provide a separate bee-only total. |
| United States | Deaths with hornet/wasp/bee sting as underlying cause | 2011-2021 | 788 deaths | Average 72 deaths per year. Overlaps 2011-2017 with the 2000-2017 row; do not add. |
| Costa Rica | Bee emergencies | 2010-2020 | ≈137,900 bee emergencies | Approximate multi-year reconstruction; keep the approximation symbol. |
| Panama | Africanized-bee emergency responses | 2018-May 2026 | 74,910 emergency responses | Cumulative total assembled from official reporting across the stated period. |
| Brazil | Reported bee accidents | 2000-2025 | 336,480 reported bee accidents | Keep separate from the 2026 year-to-date figure. |
| Brazil | Reported bee accidents | January-August 2026 | 24,137 reported cases | Year-to-date figure; do not present as a full-year total. |
| Mexico | X23 traumatic contact with hornets, wasps, and bees | 2023 | 12,290 injury cases | Combined category; not bee-only and not Africanized-only. |
| Mexico | Reported bee-sting deaths | 1986-2026 | 1,392 deaths | Mortality total only; not a total incident count. |
Sources and References
- Brazil Ministry of Health: bee-accident surveillance
- Brazil Ministry of Health: historical bee-accident surveillance
- CDC MMWR QuickStats, 2011-2021
- Costa Rica Fire Service: annual institutional reports
- Mexico / Tabasco Civil Protection: Africanized-bee control manual and mortality context
- Mexico national epidemiology annual report: X23 cases in 2023
- National Estimates of Noncanine Bite and Sting Injuries Treated in US Hospital Emergency Departments, 2001-2010
- National Estimates of Noncanine Bite and Sting Injuries Treated in US Hospital Emergency Departments, 2011-2015
- Panama Fire Service: Africanized-bee response reporting