Suicide in the United States

The suicide rate by county, 2016-2020 average rate per 100,000
  No data
  5
  10
  15
  20
  25
  30

Suicide is a major national public health issue in the United States. The country has one of the highest suicide rates among wealthy nations.[1] In 2020, there were 45,799 recorded suicides,[2] up from 42,773 in 2014, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).[3][4][5] On average, adjusted for age, the annual U.S. suicide rate increased 30% between 2000 and 2020, from 10.4 to 13.5 suicides per 100,000 people.[6] From 2000 to 2020, more than 800,000 people died by suicide in the United States. Males represented 78.7% of all suicides between 2000 and 2020.[2] In 2022, a record high 49,500 people died by suicide.[7] The 2022 rate was the highest level since 1941, at 14.3 per 100,000 persons.[8] This rate was surpassed in 2023, when it increased to over 14.7 per 100,000 persons.[9]

In 2022, the male suicide rate was approximately four times that of females.[10]

The U.S. government seeks to prevent suicides through its National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, a collaborative effort of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Indian Health Service.[11] Their plan consists of eleven goals aimed at preventing suicides.[12] Older adults are disproportionately likely to die by suicide.[13] Some U.S. jurisdictions have laws against suicide or against assisting suicide. In recent years, there has been increased interest in rethinking these laws.[14]

Suicide has been associated with tough economic conditions, including unemployment rate.[15]

There are significant variations in the suicide rates of the different states,[16] ranging from 28.89 per 100,000 people in Montana to 8.11 per 100,000 people in New York.[17]

In July 2022, the United States transitioned the National Suicide Hotline from the former 10-digit number into the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, linking both the National Suicide Hotline, the Veterans Crisis Line, and a network of more than 200 state and local call centers run through SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.[18]

  1. ^ "New International Report on Health Care: U.S. Suicide Rate Highest Among Wealthy Nations | Commonwealth Fund". CommonwealthFund.org. January 30, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "NCHS Data Brief, Number 433, March 2022" (PDF). CDC. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  3. ^ "Products – Data Briefs – Number 241 – April 2016". Cdc.gov. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  4. ^ "Data Brief 241: Increase in Suicide in the United States, 1999–2014 : Data table for Figure 1. Age-adjusted suicide rates, by sex: United States, 1999–2014" (PDF). Cdc.gov. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  5. ^ "Deaths: Final Data for 2014" (PDF). Cdc.gov. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  6. ^ Garnett, Matthew; Curtin, Sally; Stone, Deborah (March 2, 2022). "Products - Data Briefs - Number 431 - January 2022". www.cdc.gov. doi:10.15620/cdc:114217. S2CID 246722506. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  7. ^ "Suicides in the U.S. reached all-time high in 2022, CDC data shows". NBC News. August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  8. ^ Wernau, Julie (November 29, 2023). "U.S. Suicides Reached a Record High Last Year". The Wall Street Journal. News Corp. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  9. ^ Harmon, Karris (January 3, 2024). "Suicide rates for 2023 at an all-time high for the United States". NBC15.
  10. ^ "Facts & Statistics". American Association of Suicidology.
  11. ^ "Suicide Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration". Mentalhealth.samhsa.gov. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
  12. ^ "Substance Abuse and Mental Health Publications| SAMHSA Store". Mentalhealth.samhsa.gov. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
  13. ^ "In Harm's Way: Suicide in America – MHM: Suicide". Mental-health-matters.com. February 17, 2009. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
  14. ^ Engelhardt, H. Tristram Jr.; Malloy, Michele (1982–1983), "Suicide and Assisting Suicide: A Critique of Legal Sanctions", Southwestern Law Journal, 36 (4), Sw. L.J.: 1003–37, PMID 11658640
  15. ^ DS Hamermesh; NM Soss (1974), "An economic theory of suicide", The Journal of Political Economy, 82 (1): 83–98, doi:10.1086/260171, JSTOR 1830901, S2CID 154390756
  16. ^ "2015 Annual Report". America's Health Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Administration (SAMHSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (July 15, 2022). "U.S. Transition to 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Begins Saturday". HHS.gov. Retrieved September 26, 2022.