The results showed a fatality rate of 9.1 deaths per 10,000 years of risk for all children under 18 years old reported to the child abuse registry, while the rate for the comparison population was only 3.1 deaths per 10,000 years of risk. Children reported to the registry for physical neglect had a significantly elevated chance of dying, while children reported for sexual abuse had a nonsignificant elevated risk. Certain factors including reporting to the registry, intervention strategies, and followup could not be controlled and were highly variable. The results confirmed previous studies, but go beyond fatalities directly associated with child abuse to demonstrate that the mortality risk for abused children is higher than the risk for nonabused children matched for age, sex, and county. The risk for homicide subsequent to initial abuse was elevated for all age groups of abused children. Males and females had an approximately equivalent risk of death after abuse, although children under 1 year of age at the time of reported abuse had the highest fatality rate. However, the abused population of 11- to 17-year-olds had the highest relative risk for death. Future studies should focus on the effects of different types of intervention strategies. 5 tables, 2 figures, and 17 references