Statistics
Several people have been asking me about suicide rates and other statistics, below you can find the most recent data.
FACTS ABOUT SUICIDE
Suicide rates among youth (ages 15-24) have increased more than 200% in the last fifty years. The suicide rate is also very high for the elderly (age 85+).
Four times more men than women kill themselves; but three times more women than men attempt suicide.
Suicide occurs across ethnic, economic, social and age boundaries.
Suicide is preventable. Most suicidal people desperately want to live; they are just unable to see alternatives to their problems. Most suicidal people give definite warning signals of their suicidal intentions, but others are often unaware of the significance of these warnings or unsure what to do about them.
Talking about suicide does not cause someone to become suicidal.
Surviving family members not only suffer the loss of a loved one to suicide, but are also themselves at higher risk of suicide and emotional problems.
THE LINKS BETWEEN DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
Major depression is the psychiatric diagnosis most commonly associated with suicide. Lifetime risk of suicide among patients with untreated depressive disorder is nearly 20% (Gotlib & Hammen, 2002). The suicide risk among treated patients is 141/100,000 (Isacsson et al, 2000).
About 2/3 of people who complete suicide are depressed at the time of their deaths.
About 7 out of every hundred men and 1 out of every hundred women who have been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime will go on to complete suicide.
The risk of suicide in people with major depression is about 20 times that of the general population.
Individuals who have had multiple episodes of depression are at greater risk for suicide than those who have had one episode.
People who have a dependence on alcohol or drugs in addition to being depressed are at greater risk for suicide.
Suicide in the U.S.A.
Based on Current (2006) Statistics
1. In 2006 (the latest year for which we have national statistics), there were 33,300 suicides in the U.S. (91.2 suicides per day; 1 suicide every 15.8 minutes). This translates to an annual suicide rate of 11.1 per 100,000.
2. Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death.
3. Suicide rates in the U.S. can best be characterized as mostly stable over time. Since 1990, rates have ranged between 12.4 and 10.7 per 100,000.
4. Rates of suicide are highest in the intermountain states. Seven of the top 10 states suicide rates are from those states.
5. Males complete suicide at a rate four times that of females. However, females attempt suicide three times more often than males.
6. Relative to those younger, rates of completed suicide are highest among the elderly (age 80 and over).
7. Elderly adults have rates of suicide close to 50% higher than that of the nation as a whole (all ages).
8. Youth (ages 15-24) suicide rates increased more than 200% from the 1950’s to the late 1970’s. From the late 1970’s to the mid 1990’s, suicide rates for youth remained stable and, since then, have slightly decreased.
9. Suicide ranks third as a cause of death among young (15-24) Americans behind accidents and homi cides.
10. Firearms remain the most commonly utilized method of completing suicide by essentially all groups. More than half (50.7%) of the individuals who took their own lives in 2006 used this method. Males used it more often than their female counterparts.
11. The most common method of suicide for all females was poisoning. In fact, poisoning has surpassed firearms for female suicides since 2001.
12. Caucasians (12.4 per 100,000) have higher rates of completed suicides than African Americans (4.9 per 100,000).
13. Suicide rates have traditionally decreased in times of war and increased in times of economic crises.