Suicide

Definitions

• Suicide is defined as death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with intent to die as a result of the behavior.
• A suicide attempt is a non-fatal, self-directed, potentially injurious behavior with intent to die as a result of the behavior. A suicide attempt might not result in injury.
• Suicidal ideation refers to thinking about, considering, or planning suicide.

Additional information about suicide can be found on the NIMH health topics page on Suicide Prevention.

Suicide is a Leading Cause of Death in the United States

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports , in 2020:
  • Suicide was the twelfth leading cause of death overall in the United States, claiming the lives of over 45,900 people.
  • Suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10-14 and 25-34 , the third leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 15-24, and the fourth leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 35 and 44.
  • There were nearly two times as many suicides (45,979) in the United States as there were homicides (24,576).

Table 1 shows the twelve leading causes of death in the United States, and the number of deaths attributed to each cause. Data are shown for all ages and select age groups where suicide was one of the leading twelve causes of death in 2020. The data are based on death certificate information compiled by the CDC.

Table 1

Suicide Rates

Data in Figure 1 and Figure 2 are courtesy of the CDC ’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS Data Brief No. 433, March 2022 ).

Trends over Time

• Suicide rates are based on the number of people who have died by suicide per 100,000 population. When comparing rates from one year to another year, ‘age-adjusted’ rates allow for differences in population age distributions and changes in population size over time to be taken into account.
• Figure 1 shows age-adjusted suicide rates in the United States for each year from 2000 through 2020 for the total population, and for males and females separately.
  • The total age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States increased 35.2% from 10.4 per 100,000 in 2000 to 14.2 per 100,000 in 2018, before declining to 13.9 per 100,000 in 2019 and declining again to 13.5 per 100,000 in 2020.
  • In 2020, the suicide rate among males was 4 times higher (22.0 per 100,000) than among females (5.5 per 100,000).

Figure 1

Suicide by Method

Data in Table 2 and Figure 5 are courtesy of the CDC WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports .

Number of Suicide Deaths by Method

• Table 2 includes information on the total number of suicides for the most common methods.
• In 2020, firearms were the most common method used in suicide deaths in the United States, accounting for over half of all suicide deaths (24,292).

Table 2

Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among U.S. Adults

Data in Figure 6, Figure 7, and Figure 8 are based on data from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health  (NSDUH)¹ by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration  (SAMHSA).

Data Sources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). Atlanta, GA: National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html .

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2022). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP22-07-01-005, NSDUH Series H-57). Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2021-nsduh-annual-national-report .

Statistical Methods and Measurement Caveats

National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)

Population:

• NSDUH participants are representative of the civilian, non-institutionalized population aged 12 years old or older residing within the United States.
• The survey covers residents of households (persons living in houses/townhouses, apartments, condominiums; civilians living in housing on military bases, etc.) and persons in non-institutional group quarters (e.g., shelters, rooming/boarding houses, college dormitories, migratory workers' camps, and halfway houses).
• The survey does not cover persons who, for the entire year, had no fixed address (e.g., homeless and/or transient persons not in shelters); were on active military duty; or who resided in institutional group quarters (e.g., correctional facilities, nursing homes, mental institutions, long-term hospitals).
• Data regarding sex of the respondent was assessed using male and female categories only. Gender identity information was not collected in the survey.

Interview Response and Completion:

• In 2021, 53.0% of the selected NSDUH sample of people 18 or older did not complete the interview. This rate of non-response is higher than in previous years. Please see the Background on the 2021 NSDUH and the COVID-19 Pandemic section below for more information.
• Reasons for non-response to interviewing include the following: refusal to participate (30.1%); respondent unavailable or never at home (18.8%); and other reasons such as physical/mental incompetence or language barriers (4.2%).
• People with suicidal behavior may disproportionately fall into these non-response categories. While NSDUH weighting includes non-response adjustments to reduce bias, these adjustments may not fully account for differential non-response by suicide behavior status. Prior to the 2020 NSDUH, this bias was deemed small and inconsequential due to low rates of item nonresponse and low prevalence estimates for outcomes imputed using the zero-fill method. With the increase in break-offs among adults in 2020 who completed the questionnaire via the web, the potential bias of this approach for handling missing data became of greater concern. Therefore, missing values in the variables associated with multiple outcomes, including for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, were statistically imputed beginning in 2021.

Data Suppression:

• For some groups, data are not reported due to low precision. Data may be suppressed in the above charts if the data do not meet acceptable ranges for prevalence estimates, standard error estimates, and sample size.

Background on the 2021 NSDUH and the COVID-19 Pandemic:

• Data collection methods for the 2021 NSDUH changed in several ways because of the COVID-19 pandemic: the 2021 NSDUH continued the use of multimode data collection procedures (both in-person and virtual data collection) that were first implemented in the fourth quarter of the 2020 NSDUH. Overall, 54.6% of interviews were completed via the web, and 45.4% were completed in person. In 2021, the weighted response rates for household screening and for interviewing were 22.2% and 46.2%, respectively, for an overall response rate of 10.3% for people aged 12 or older. Given the use of multimode data collection procedures through the entirety of the collection year and the rate of non-response, comparison of estimates from the 2021 NSDUH with those from prior years must be made with caution.

Please see the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Methodological Summary and Definitions report  for further information on how these data were collected and calculated.

Last Updated: May 2023

If You are in Crisis

If you are in crisis, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline  at 988, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Lifeline provides confidential support to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Support is also available via live chat . Para ayuda en español, llame al 988. 

Additional Resources

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 
• Veterans Crisis Line 
• National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention 
• National Library of Medicine - Suicide 
• National Strategy for Suicide Prevention 
• NIMH Multimedia on Suicide Prevention
• NIMH Suicide Prevention
• StopBullying.gov