Nearly six Americans committed suicide every hour last year, data suggests, as suicide rates in the United States remained near their highest level in the country’s history.
Provisional data from the CDC showed that 49,300 suicide deaths were recorded in 2023, similar to the 49,500 recorded the previous year, one of the highest numbers ever recorded.
A comprehensive report released today on suicide data for 2022, the last year for which complete figures are available, shows a five percent increase in suicides among middle-aged women in one year, the group most likely to die by suicide. among women.
And a four percent increase among men over 75, who are also more likely to die by suicide among their sex.
While the number of suicides remained stable between 2022 and 2023, it was generally on the rise and was 20 percent higher than a decade ago and double what it was two decades ago.
Suicide rates in the US have been rising for almost 20 years, apart from a two-year drop at the start of the Covid pandemic, and experts say today’s figures may be “cautiously promising” as they suggest that suicides are no longer increasing.
The graph above shows the suicide rate in the US compared to other countries through 2021. It was produced by Our World In Data at the University of Oxford.
Among those who committed suicide in 2023 was Heather Armstrong, a mother of two, famous as a parenting blogger.
The United States has one of the highest suicide rates of Western nations: 14.2 suicides per 100,000 people in 2022.
This surpassed the rate in England and Wales (10.7 per 100,000 people), Australia (12.3) and Germany (12.1).
But it was below the 15 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants of Japan. Historically, the country has seen a high rate of people taking their own lives.
Suicide is currently the 11th leading cause of death in the US, statistics suggest.
By age group, men accounted for three to four times more suicides than women in 2022: the new report found.
The group most likely to die by suicide was men aged 75 and older, which had a rate of 44 suicides per 100,000 people.
Among women, those aged 45 to 64 had the highest rate, with 8.6 suicides per 100,000.
Experts warn that the reasons for suicide are often “complicated” and that attempts can be due to a number of factors.
Contributors include depression, the limited availability of mental health services, and the availability of guns.
Estimates suggest that 57.8 million people in the United States suffer from mental health problems each year, and 21 million struggle with depression.
The graph above shows suicide rates in the US over time. It highlights how the rates among men are three to four times higher than among women
The above shows suicide rates by age group over time among American women.
The above shows suicide rates by age group among US men.
Dr. Katherine Keyes, a professor of public health at Columbia University, cautiously welcomed the results, saying that “the stabilization of any increase in suicide is cautiously promising news.”
The United States now has a national crisis line that allows anyone to dial 988 to contact a mental health specialist for two years, which Dr. Keyes says could now be starting to bear fruit.
Among those who committed suicide last year was Heather Armstrong, a mother of two, a Utah-based content creator who earned the title “queen of mom bloggers.”
The 47-year-old built a lucrative online career writing about the unspoken realities of motherhood and the struggles of her two children, her husband and her mental health.
Her partner of six years, Pete Ashdown, spent months after her death in May 2023 trying to piece together how it happened.
“Losing Heather is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through,” he said. ABC News. ‘The mental torture I’ve been through, wondering if I could have done anything to avoid this outcome.
“When you lose someone to suicide, you become a kind of investigator trying to figure out all the confluences that came together to cause a person to do such a thing.”
- For help and support, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
