Health Disparities in Suicide

Overview

Suicide and suicide attempts can have lasting emotional, mental, and physical health impacts, as well as economic consequences. They can also impact people who struggle with their own risk of suicide and/or mental health challenges (called "lived experience").

Suicide and suicidal behavior are influenced by negative conditions. These conditions, sometimes called social determinants of health, can include racism and discrimination in our society, economic hardship (such as high unemployment), poverty, limited affordable housing, lack of educational opportunities, and barriers to physical and mental healthcare access, among others. Additional factors that can increase suicide risk include relationship problems or feeling a lack of connectedness to others, easy access to lethal means among people at risk, experiences of violence1 such as child abuse and neglect, adverse childhood experiences, bullying, and serious health conditions.

While anyone can experience suicide risk, some populations experience more negative social conditions and have higher rates of suicide or suicide attempts than the general U.S. population. The excess burden of suicide in some populations are called health disparities.2 Examples of groups experiencing suicide health disparities include veterans, people who live in rural areas, sexual minorities, middle-aged adults, people of color, and tribal populations.

Addressing these negative conditions and factors can help prevent suicide and suicide attempts. CDC is concerned with groups disproportionately impacted by suicide and uses a comprehensive public health approach to reduce suicide risk and save lives.

Access the Suicide Disparities infographic.

What CDC is doing to address health disparities in suicide

CDC is supporting states, tribes, territories, non-governmental organizations, and university research programs to address four strategic priority areas in suicide prevention:

• Data: Using new and existing data to better understand, monitor, and prevent suicide and suicidal behavior
• Science: Identifying risk and protective factors and effective policies, programs, and practices for suicide prevention in populations at increased risk for suicide
• Action: Building the foundation for CDC's National Suicide Prevention Program
• Collaboration: Developing and implementing wide-reaching partnership and communication strategies to raise awareness and advance suicide prevention activities

Additionally, CDC funds the Comprehensive Suicide Prevention program, which aims to reduce suicide among groups that experience health disparities in suicide. These programs use suicide prevention strategies based on the best available evidence to help states and communities prevent suicide. These strategies can be found in CDC's Suicide Prevention Resource for Action, and include:

• Strengthen economic supports
• Create protective environments
• Improve access and delivery of suicide care
• Promote healthy connections
• Teach coping and problem-solving skills
• Identify and support people at risk
• Lessen harms and prevent future risk

Populations impacted

Suicide rates differ by ageA

Adults

Adults aged 35–64 years account for 46.8% of all suicides in the United States, and suicide is the 8th leading cause of death for this age group.3

• Among men in this age group, suicide rates were highest for non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) men (41.3 suicides per 100,000), followed by non-Hispanic White men (35.7 per 100,000).3
• Among women in this age group, suicide rates were highest among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native women (12.8 per 100,000) and non-Hispanic White women (10.7 per 100,000).3

Older Adults

Adults aged 75 and older have one of the highest suicide rates (20.3 per 100,000). Men aged 75 and older have the highest rate (42.2 per 100,000) compared to other age groups. Non-Hispanic White men have the highest suicide rate compared to other racial/ethnic men in this age group (50.1 per 100,000).3

Youth and Young Adults

Youth and young adults ages 10–24 years account for 15% of all suicides. The suicide rate for this age group (11.0 per 100,000)B is lower than other age groups.3 However, suicide is the second leading cause of death for this age group, accounting for 7,126 deaths.3 Additionally, suicide rates for this age group increased 52.2% between 2000-2021.

Youth and young adults most impacted include non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native, with a suicide rate of 36.3 per 100,000.3

Youth and young adults have high rates of emergency department (ED) visits for self-harm. In 2020, the ED visit rate for this age group was 354.4 per 100,000, compared with 128.9 per 100,000 among middle-aged adults ages 35-64 years.4

• There were an estimated 224,341 ED visits for self-harm among youth and young adults.4 Girls and young women are at particularly high risk, with their ED visit rate (514.4 per 100,000) being approximately twice the rate of ED visits among boys and young men (200.5 per 100,000).
• The rate of ED visits among girls in 2020 was approximately double compared to 2001 (244.3 per 100,0004).

In 2021, 9% of high school students reported attempting suicide during the previous 12 months.5 Suicide attempts were reported most frequently among girls compared to boys (12.4% vs. 5.3%) and among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native students (20.1%).5

Suicide risk is higher among people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual

Data are limited on frequency of suicide among people who identify as sexual minorities. However, research shows that high school students who identify as sexual minorities have a higher prevalence of suicide attempts compared to heterosexual students.5

In 2021, more than a quarter (26.3%) of high school students identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual reported attempting suicide in the prior 12 months. This was five times higher than the prevalence among heterosexual students (5.2%).5

Data from 2020 show the prevalence of individuals reporting suicide attempts in the prior 12 months among adult sexual minorities decreased with age, from 5.5% among people ages 18-25 to 2.2% among people ages 26-49.6

Suicide rates are higher among veterans

In 2020, 6,146 veterans died by suicide. Suicide was the 13^th leading cause of death among veterans overall, and the second leading cause of death among veterans under age 45.7 Veterans have an age-adjusted suicide rate that is 57.3% greater than the non-veteran U.S. adult population.7 Veterans account for about 13.9% of suicides among adults in the United States.7

Additionally, in 2019, 1.6% of veteran young adults ages 18-25 reported making a suicide attempt during the previous 12 months. This was an increase from 0.9% in 2009.8

Suicide rates vary by race and ethnicity

Age-adjusted suicide rates are highest among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people (28.1 per 100,000) and non-Hispanic White people (17.4 per 100,0003).

• Suicide is the 9th leading cause of death among AI/AN people.
  • Non-Hispanic AI/AN people have a higher age-adjusted rate of suicide (28.1 per 100,000) compared with Hispanic AI/AN people (2.0 per 100,000).
  • The suicide rate among non-Hispanic AI/AN males ages 15–34 is 82.1 per 100,000.
• Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic people of all races.
• Between 2018-2021, suicide rates significantly increased overall among non-Hispanic AI/AN (26%) and non-Hispanic Black (19.2%) people, and declined by 3.9% among non-Hispanic White people.

Suicide ideation is higher among people with disabilities

Limited data are available on suicide among people with disabilities. However, a recent survey highlighted that in 2021, adults with disabilities were three times more likely to report suicidal ideation in the past month compared to people without disabilities (30.6% versus 8.3% in the general U.S. population9). Prior research also shows that the prevalence of reported mental distress, which is a risk factor for suicide, was 4.6 times higher among people with disabilities (32.9%) than among people without disabilities (7.2%10).

Suicide rates differ by industry and occupationC

Industry is the type of activity at a person's workplace and occupation is the kind of work a person does to earn a living. A CDC study examining data in 32 states found that the suicide rate among workers in certain industries and occupations was significantly greater than the general U.S. population, particularly for males.11

The industry groups that had the highest suicide rates were:

1. Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (males: 54.2 per 100,000)
2. Construction (males: 45.3 per 100,000)
3. Other Services (such as automotive repair; males: 39.1 per 100,000)
4. Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting (males: 36.1 per 100,000)
5. Transportation and Warehousing (males: 29.8 per 100,000; females: 10.1 per 100,000)

The occupation groups that had higher suicide rates than the general population were:

1. Construction and Extraction (males: 49.4 per 100,000; females: 25.5 per 100,000)D
2. Installation, Maintenance, and Repair (males: 36.9 per 100,000)
3. Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media (males: 32.0 per 100,000)
4. Transportation and Material Moving (males: 30.4 per 100,000; females: 12.5 per 100,000)
5. Protective Service (females: 14.0 per 100,000)
6. Healthcare Support (females: 10.6 per 100,000)

Suicide rates differ based on where you live

Suicide rates can vary substantially across geographic regions.* For example, suicide rates increase as population density decreases and an area becomes more rural.

2021 suicide rates based on population density:

• Large central metropolitan: 11.6 per 100,000
• Large fringe metro: 12.8 per 100,000
• Medium metro: 15.7 per 100,000
• Small metro: 17.8 per 100,000
• Micropolitan (non-metro): 19.2 per 100,000
• Noncore (non-metro): 21.7 per 100,000

Suicide rates in rural (non-metro) areas are highest among non-Hispanic AI/AN males (61.8 per 100,000) and non-Hispanic White males (36.8 per 100,0003).

*For information on how areas are classified, visit this page: Data Access – Urban Rural Classification Scheme for Counties (cdc.gov)