Younger people, men lead rise in suicide rates in 2021

The U.S. suicide rate resumed its upward climb in 2021 after two years of decline, with young people and men hit hardest by the persistent mental health crisis, according to provisional data released Friday by the government.

The 4 percent increase almost wiped out modest decreases in the two previous years, bringing the country back near the most recent peak in suicide deaths, 48,344 in 2018. There were 47,646 suicides in 2021, according to the data, boosting the rate to 14 per 100,000 people, up from 13.5 in 2020.

“A 4 percent rise is certainly disappointing,” said Christine Yu Moutier, chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “However, what had been predicted at the beginning of the pandemic was that there would be a major escalation.”

Suicide is a complex, multifaceted problem whose causes can defy generalization. In individuals, it is linked to depression, family history of suicide, physical illness, childhood trauma and substance abuse, among other factors. In interviews, experts also cited a recent increase in guns in the home, loss of jobs and loved ones to the pandemic, last fall’s COVID-19 surge and the influence of social media on teens as a few of the issues that may aggravate those risks.

“You can have people exposed to the same stressors and for the most part, most people are not killing themselves,” said Jane Pearson, an adviser on suicide research to the National Institute of Mental Health. “People with mental disorders are at higher risk, but we also know that if people can manage their mental disorders, they are at lower risk.”

The 2021 data are not final, but are not expected to change much, said Sally C. Curtin, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics and lead author of the new report.

In recent years, concern has grown about increased suicides among Black Americans. Native Americans and younger people. “It’s all over the country,” Curtin said of the rise in suicide among younger people. “What would a kid on a farm in Iowa and a kid in New York City have in common?”

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 34, and the new data from NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, support that trend. The rate for people aged 15 to 24 rose 8 percent and the rate for people aged 25 to 34 rose 4 percent. People in the 35-to-44-year-old and 65to-74-year-old age groups also saw statistically significant increases.

Suicides are also committed overwhelmingly by men and boys. In 2021, like many other years, male suicides outnumbered female suicides by about 4 to 1, the data show. There were 38,025 suicides among men and 9,621 among women. The report found that the small increase in the 2021 women’s suicide rate was not statistically significant.

The gender disparity is most commonly explained by the stigma attached to men admitting that they are struggling with psychological issues and seeking help, Moutier said, a situation that many hope is beginning to change. It is also attributed to the fact that more men than women use firearms as a suicide method, leading to many more completed suicides.