The US racked up 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent over 2019, and 24,245 gun suicides, up 1.5 percent.
The firearm homicide rate stood at 6.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, the highest for more than 25 years.
The CDC said the rise might be blamed in part by the stresses of the Covid-19 pandemic and poverty.
The gun industry has rocketed in two decades. In 2000, there were 2,222 registered active manufacturers. By 2020, the number hit 16,936.
Annual commercial gun production likewise surged: 3.9 million in 2000, hitting 11.3 million 20 years later. But that was down from the peak of 11.9 million in 2016.
Of those sold in 2020, almost exactly half were pistols, doubling their share of the market since 2000: the year 2020 saw 5.5 million pistols, and nearly a million revolvers, enter circulation.
Firearms made by official manufacturers must have serial numbers that allow them to be traced by law enforcement.
But officials are increasingly worried about homemade "ghost guns" that have no such markings and are increasingly found in crimes.
In 2021, the report said, officials recovered 19,244 such guns, compared to just 1,758 five years earlier.
The new report was the first in a four-volume study of gun markets and illegal trafficking.
