Among men in the United States, those aged 75 years and older have the highest death rate from suicide among all age groups. In 2022, the suicide death rate among men aged 75 years and older was 43.9 per 100,000 population. In comparison, the death rate from suicide among men aged 25 to 44 years was 29.6 per 100,000. Suicide is a significant problem in the United States, with rates increasing over the past decade. Suicide among men In the United States, the suicide rate among men is almost four times higher than that of women. In 2022, the rate of suicide among U.S. men was 23 per 100,000 population, the highest rate recorded over the past 70 years. Firearms account for the vast majority of suicide deaths among men, accounting for around 60 percent of male suicides in 2021. The reasons why U.S. men have higher rates of suicide than women are complex and not fully understood, but may have to do with the more violent means by which men carry out suicide and the stigma around seeking help for mental health issues. Suicide among women Although the suicide rate among women in the U.S. is significantly lower than that of men, the rate of suicide among women has increased over the past couple of decades. Among women, those aged 45 to 64 years have the highest death rates due to suicide, followed by women 25 to 44 years old. Interestingly, the share of women reporting serious thoughts of suicide in the past year is higher than that of men, with around 5.5 percent of U.S. women reporting such thoughts in 2023. Similarly to men, firearms account for most suicide deaths among women, however suffocation and poisoning account for a significant share of suicides among women. In 2021, around 35 percent of suicides among women were carried out by firearms, while suffocation and poisoning each accounted for around 28 percent of suicide deaths.

In 2021, there were around 42.2 deaths from suicide per 100,000 population among males in the U.S. aged 75 years and older. Males aged 75 years and older were more likely to die from suicide than any other age group for both males and females. The suicide death rate for males in general is constantly greater than that for females. Suicide method by gender Not only do suicide rates differ by gender, but the method of suicide varies as well. Suicide by firearm accounts for 56 percent of suicides among males, but only 31 percent of those among females. However, suicide by poisoning accounts for a much larger share of suicides among females than males. In 2019, there were a total of 23,941 firearm suicides and 6,125 poisoning suicides. Substance abuse, mental health, and suicide Those who suffer from substance abuse and certain mental health disorders are at a much greater risk of falling victim to suicide. It’s been found that around 14 percent of those with drug or alcohol dependence or abuse had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year, compared to just three percent of those with no such substance dependence of abuse. Similarly, around 3.6 percent of those with a major depressive episode in the past year had attempted suicide, while only 0.2 percent of those without a major depressive episode had done so.

Data on death rates for suicide, by selected population characteristics. Please refer to the PDF or Excel version of this table in the HUS 2019 Data Finder (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2019.htm) for critical information about measures, definitions, and changes over time. SOURCE: NCHS, National Vital Statistics System (NVSS); Grove RD, Hetzel AM. Vital statistics rates in the United States, 1940–1960. National Center for Health Statistics. 1968; numerator data from NVSS annual public-use Mortality Files; denominator data from U.S. Census Bureau national population estimates; and Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Arias E, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2018. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 69 no 13. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2021. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm. For more information on the National Vital Statistics System, see the corresponding Appendix entry at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus19-appendix-508.pdf.

In 2023, the 50 to 59-year age group had the highest suicide rate in Japan, with 23.4 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Middle-aged men are frequently portrayed as the highest-risk group for suicide in Japan. On the other hand, suicides among the elderly and schoolchildren are also recurrently picked up by the media. Japan's recent suicide rates Japan’s suicide numbers peaked in 2009 when the country experienced its worst recession since World War II. That same year, the suicide rate surged to 25.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and almost 33 thousand victims in total. While the country's suicide rate has shown a steady downward trend in the most recent decade, 2020 marked the first time within the past decade that suicide numbers were rising again. The COVID-19 pandemic likely caused this upward trend.From a gender perspective, Japanese men are more likely to commit suicide than women. In 2023, 24.6 deaths per 100,000 male inhabitants were reported, compared to a female suicide rate of 10.9 in the same year.  What are the reasons behind Japan’s high suicide rates?  Many factors are being blamed for the Japan's high suicide rates, including financial anxiety, bullying, isolation, and a lack of a proficient mental healthcare system. Historically, the country's high suicide rates have been closely linked to the economic situation of the individuals. Existential worries and problems directly related to work have been one of the main reasons for self-inflicted deaths in the past years.In the past 10 years, one of the most profound issues faced by employees in Japan leading to self-harm was exhaustion. An increasing pressure of retaining jobs by putting in more hours of overtime, while taking fewer holidays and sick days, are considered the main motivators behind the rising suicide numbers among office workers and employees. Occupational sudden mortality, known as karoshi (“death by overwork”) is a well-known phenomenon in Japanese society. Besides physical pressure, mental stress from the workplace can cause karoshi. Suicide due to occupational stress or overwork is called karojisatsu (“overwork suicide”) in Japan.

Suicide mortality rate is the number of suicide deaths in a year per 100,000 population. Crude suicide rate (not age-adjusted).

In 2023, the suicide rate in South Korea was particularly high among the elderly population over the age of 80, with 59.4 deaths per 100,000 population. The overall suicide rate among people aged 10 to 79 years increased compared to the previous year. Suicide was the leading cause of death among people aged 10 to 39 years. Suicide among the elderlySouth Korea has the highest suicide rate in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). One driving factor for suicide among the elderly is poverty. Almost half of the senior citizens in the country live with less than half the median disposable income. Many do not want to become a financial burden for their families and end up committing suicide as a result of not being able to support themselves.Suicide prevention Since the South Korean government implemented its initial suicide prevention program in 2004, numerous measures have been put in place to address the alarmingly high suicide rate. However, these efforts have not been very successful. Despite an increase in the annual budget for suicide prevention, it still remains significantly lower compared to international standards. If you are having suicidal thoughts, or you know someone who is, it is essential to seek help. Many countries have suicide crisis or prevention lines that offer free advice and support in such situations. If you live in the United States, you can reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by simply calling 988 to receive free and confidential support 24/7. If you live in South Korea you can call the suicide prevention hotline 109.

Suicide deaths and rates by age group in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties from 2003 - 2017.Data compiled from the https://geo.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=9c59be59ef7142dfad40d95e3b36f588.Counts for 2015-2017 are not comparable to other date ranges because the time periods are not equal.

The suicide rate among females in the United States is highest for those aged 45 to 64 years and lowest among girls aged 10 to 14 and elderly women 75 and over. Although the suicide rate among women remains over three times lower than that of men, rates of suicide among women have gradually increased over the past couple decades. Suicide among women in the United States In 2021, there were around six suicide deaths per 100,000 women in the United States. In comparison, the rate of suicide among women in the year 2000 was about four per 100,000. Suicide rates among women are by far the highest among American Indians or Alaska Natives and lowest among Hispanic and Black or African American women. Although firearms are involved in the highest share of suicide deaths among both men and women, they account for a much smaller share among women. In 2020, the firearm suicide rate among women was 1.8 per 100,000 population, while the rates of suicide for suffocation and poisoning were 1.7 and 1.5 per 100,000, respectively. Suicidal ideation among women Although not everyone who experiences suicidal ideation, or suicidal thoughts, will attempt suicide, suicidal thoughts are a risk factor for suicide. In 2022, just over five percent of women in the United States reported having serious thoughts of suicide in the past year. Suicidal thoughts are more common among women than men even though men have much higher rates of death from suicide than women. This is because men are more likely to use more lethal methods of suicide such as firearms. Women who suffer from substance use disorder are significantly more likely to have serious thoughts of suicide than women without substance use disorder.

BackgroundIn Europe, men have lower rates of attempted suicide compared to women and at the same time a higher rate of completed suicides, indicating major gender differences in lethality of suicidal behaviour. The aim of this study was to analyse the extent to which these gender differences in lethality can be explained by factors such as choice of more lethal methods or lethality differences within the same suicide method or age. In addition, we explored gender differences in the intentionality of suicide attempts.Methods and FindingsMethods. Design: Epidemiological study using a combination of self-report and official data. Setting: Mental health care services in four European countries: Germany, Hungary, Ireland, and Portugal. Data basis: Completed suicides derived from official statistics for each country (767 acts, 74.4% male) and assessed suicide attempts excluding habitual intentional self-harm (8,175 acts, 43.2% male).Main Outcome Measures and Data Analysis. We collected data on suicidal acts in eight regions of four European countries participating in the EU-funded “OSPI-Europe”-project (www.ospi-europe.com). We calculated method-specific lethality using the number of completed suicides per method * 100 / (number of completed suicides per method + number of attempted suicides per method). We tested gender differences in the distribution of suicidal acts for significance by using the χ2-test for two-by-two tables. We assessed the effect sizes with phi coefficients (φ). We identified predictors of lethality with a binary logistic regression analysis. Poisson regression analysis examined the contribution of choice of methods and method-specific lethality to gender differences in the lethality of suicidal acts.Findings Main ResultsSuicidal acts (fatal and non-fatal) were 3.4 times more lethal in men than in women (lethality 13.91% (regarding 4106 suicidal acts) versus 4.05% (regarding 4836 suicidal acts)), the difference being significant for the methods hanging, jumping, moving objects, sharp objects and poisoning by substances other than drugs. Median age at time of suicidal behaviour (35–44 years) did not differ between males and females. The overall gender difference in lethality of suicidal behaviour was explained by males choosing more lethal suicide methods (odds ratio (OR) = 2.03; 95% CI = 1.65 to 2.50; p < 0.000001) and additionally, but to a lesser degree, by a higher lethality of suicidal acts for males even within the same method (OR = 1.64; 95% CI = 1.32 to 2.02; p = 0.000005). Results of a regression analysis revealed neither age nor country differences were significant predictors for gender differences in the lethality of suicidal acts. The proportion of serious suicide attempts among all non-fatal suicidal acts with known intentionality (NFSAi) was significantly higher in men (57.1%; 1,207 of 2,115 NFSAi) than in women (48.6%; 1,508 of 3,100 NFSAi) (χ2 = 35.74; p < 0.000001).Main limitations of the studyDue to restrictive data security regulations to ensure anonymity in Ireland, specific ages could not be provided because of the relatively low absolute numbers of suicide in the Irish intervention and control region. Therefore, analyses of the interaction between gender and age could only be conducted for three of the four countries. Attempted suicides were assessed for patients presenting to emergency departments or treated in hospitals. An unknown rate of attempted suicides remained undetected. This may have caused an overestimation of the lethality of certain methods. Moreover, the detection of attempted suicides and the registration of completed suicides might have differed across the four countries. Some suicides might be hidden and misclassified as undetermined deaths.ConclusionsMen more often used highly lethal methods in suicidal behaviour, but there was also a higher method-specific lethality which together explained the large gender differences in the lethality of suicidal acts. Gender differences in the lethality of suicidal acts were fairly consistent across all four European countries examined. Males and females did not differ in age at time of suicidal behaviour. Suicide attempts by males were rated as being more serious independent of the method used, with the exceptions of attempted hanging, suggesting gender differences in intentionality associated with suicidal behaviour. These findings contribute to understanding of the spectrum of reasons for gender differences in the lethality of suicidal behaviour and should inform the development of gender specific strategies for suicide prevention.

Mortality from intentional self-harm (ICD-10 X60-X84 equivalent to ICD-9 E950-E959). This indicator does not include deaths by injury undetermined. To reduce the number of suicides. Legacy unique identifier: P00534

Suicide mortality rate is the number of suicide deaths in a year per 100,000 population. Crude suicide rate (not age-adjusted).

Suicide mortality rate is the number of suicide deaths in a year per 100,000 population. Crude suicide rate (not age-adjusted).

Mortality rate has been age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. ICD-10 codes used to identify suicides are X60-X84, Y87.0, and U03. Single-year data are only available for Los Angeles County overall, Service Planning Areas, Supervisorial Districts, City of Los Angeles overall, and City of Los Angeles Council Districts.Suicide is a leading cause of preventable death in Los Angeles County, affecting individuals of all ages and races and ethnicities. While there is a strong association between suicide and health conditions, such as mood and anxiety disorders or substance use disorders, suicide is rarely caused by a single circumstance and is more often due to a combination of individual, relational, and environmental factors. Individual factors can include history of mental illness, previous suicide attempts, adverse childhood events, or financial hardship. Relational factors include experiences of bullying, loss of relationships, or social isolation. Environmental factors include lack of access to healthcare, community violence, or social stigma associated with seeking help for a mental illness.For more information about the Community Health Profiles Data Initiative, please see the initiative homepage.

Number of suicides and suicide rates, by sex and age, in England and Wales. Information on conclusion type is provided, along with the proportion of suicides by method and the median registration delay.

Suicide mortality rate is the number of suicide deaths in a year per 100,000 population. Crude suicide rate (not age-adjusted).

These tables present data about suicide deaths in New Zealand over the 20-year period from 1996 to 2015. The tables include numbers and rates by common demographic breakdowns, such as age, sex, ethnicity, district health board (DHB) of residence, neighbourhood deprivation.

Suicide mortality rate is the number of suicide deaths in a year per 100,000 population. Crude suicide rate (not age-adjusted).

In 20223 the suicide rate in South Korea was highest among the elderly male population aged 80 years and older, with 115.8 deaths per 100,000 population. The suicide rate in South Korea reached 27.3 deaths per 100,000 population that year.

Download data on suicides in Massachusetts by demographics and year. This page also includes reporting on military & veteran suicide, and suicides during COVID-19.

Suicide mortality rate is the number of suicide deaths in a year per 100,000 population. Crude suicide rate (not age-adjusted).