Suicide in the United States

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States.

In 2021, suicide accounted for:

48,183 deaths - That’s 1 death every 11 minutes.

In 2021, there was an estimated:

1.70 Million suicide attempts

The state of Montana has the highest suicide rate in the country:

In 2021, of every 100,000 people, 350 took their own life by suicide.

Youth and Young Adults (age 10-24)

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth and young adults (11.0 per 100,00). Between the years of 2000 and 2021, suicide rates for this group have increased by 52.2%.

Youths impacted the most include non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Natives with a rate of 36.3 per 100,000 along with youths that identify as LGBQTIA+.

Suicide Risk is higher for people that belong to the LGBTQIA+ Community

Data is limited on the rates of suicide for individuals that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer/queer questioning, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA+) because sexual orientation and gender identity information is not routinely collected at time of death in most states. The Trevor Project conducted a survey analysis of 18,000 LGBQT young people, age 13-24. They found that 39% of LGBTQ people have seriously considered suicide in the past year. That number was even higher for transgender and nonbinary youth at 46%.

In 2019, The Center for Disease Control (CDC) released the National Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance Results. The data highlighted that LGBTQ students are much more lightly to experience victimization, violence and suicide ideation. The data shows that:

• 43% of transgender youth have been bullied on school property, compared to 18% of cisgender youth.

• 29% of transgender youth have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property compared to 7% of cisgender youth.

• 29% of transgender youth have attempted suicide, compared to 7% of cisgender youth.

• 21% of gay and lesbian youth along with 22% of bisexual youth have attempted suicide, compared to 7% of straight youth

• Of all LGBQT youth in the United States, 12% have attempted suicide.

In 2021, more than a quarter of high school students (26.3%) in the United States identifying as LGBTQIA+ reported attempting suicide in the prior 12 months - which is five times the rate of heterosexual students (5.2%).