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suicidedata

Statistics

Every number is a person.

Understand the problem of suicide by reviewing trends in age, gender, race, location and method, updated yearly from trusted sources.

High level overview

How big of a problem is it?

  • 14.3 million

    had serious thoughts of suicide

  • 4.6 million

    made a plan

  • 2.2 million

    made an attempt

  • 48,824

    died by suicide in 2024

US adults, in one year. That is roughly 1 in 18 adults having the thought — and far fewer going on to a plan, fewer still to an attempt.

Thoughts, plans and attempts: National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2024, via NIMH. Deaths: CDC, summed across states, 2024. Figures of this kind are generally thought to undercount.

By state

Suicide deaths in the US.

Deaths per 100,000 people. Official counts are believed to be underreported by roughly 10–30%, accounting for undetermined intent and misclassified overdoses. Undercounting is worse for some populations.

Measure
Suicide rate by US stateAlabama: 16.4 per 100,000Alaska: 30.3 per 100,000Arizona: 20.4 per 100,000Colorado: 22.3 per 100,000Florida: 16.1 per 100,000Georgia: 14.9 per 100,000Indiana: 17.1 per 100,000Kansas: 17.9 per 100,000Maine: 20.4 per 100,000Massachusetts: 9.3 per 100,000Minnesota: 14.3 per 100,000New Jersey: 7.3 per 100,000North Carolina: 15 per 100,000North Dakota: 18.5 per 100,000Oklahoma: 21.4 per 100,000Pennsylvania: 14.2 per 100,000South Dakota: 21.5 per 100,000Texas: 14.7 per 100,000Wyoming: 28.9 per 100,000Connecticut: 10.9 per 100,000Missouri: 18.6 per 100,000West Virginia: 17.1 per 100,000Illinois: 11.4 per 100,000New Mexico: 25.2 per 100,000Arkansas: 19.3 per 100,000California: 10.3 per 100,000Delaware: 12.1 per 100,000District of Columbia: 6.5 per 100,000Hawaii: 13.9 per 100,000Iowa: 17.1 per 100,000Kentucky: 18.6 per 100,000Maryland: 10.2 per 100,000Michigan: 14.4 per 100,000Mississippi: 15.3 per 100,000Montana: 28.2 per 100,000New Hampshire: 17.7 per 100,000New York: 8.7 per 100,000Ohio: 15.7 per 100,000Oregon: 22.2 per 100,000Tennessee: 17.2 per 100,000Utah: 19.5 per 100,000Virginia: 13.7 per 100,000Washington: 15.6 per 100,000Wisconsin: 15.6 per 100,000Nebraska: 15 per 100,000South Carolina: 16.8 per 100,000Idaho: 22.2 per 100,000Nevada: 21.2 per 100,000Vermont: 16.2 per 100,000Louisiana: 14.3 per 100,000Rhode Island: 9.6 per 100,000
Per 100,000
  • under 13.3
  • 13.3–15.2
  • 15.2–17.6
  • 17.6–20.5
  • 20.5 and over

Highest

  1. Alaska30.3
  2. Wyoming28.9
  3. Montana28.2
  4. New Mexico25.2
  5. Colorado22.3

Lowest

  1. District of Columbia6.5
  2. New Jersey7.3
  3. New York8.7
  4. Massachusetts9.3
  5. Rhode Island9.6

CDC, Mapping Injury, Overdose and Violence (state), 2024.

Who

Sex, age and race.

Men die by suicide several times more often than women, while women attempt more often — largely due to differences in method. Age matters too: rates peak in midlife, dip after retirement, then rise again among older adults. American Indian and Alaska Native people have the highest suicide rate of any U.S. racial or ethnic group.

By sex · per 100,000 · 2018
  • Male22.8
  • Female6.2

Male 22.8 against female 6.2 — about 3.7 times.

By age · per 100,000 · 2018
  • 10-142.9
  • 15-2414.5
  • 25-4417.9
  • 45-6420.1
  • 65-7416.3
  • 75-8418.7
  • 85+19.1

CDC/NCHS. The table stops at 2018; state figures above run to 2024.

By race and ethnicity · per 100,000 · 2018MenWomen
  • American Indian or Alaska Native
    33.611.1
  • White
    28.68
  • Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
    19.8

    not published

  • Black or African American
    12.22.9
  • Hispanic or Latino
    12.12.8
  • Asian
    103.8

CDC/NCHS, 2018, age-adjusted. CDC publishes race crossed with sex and not on its own. Racial misclassification on death certificates has been estimated at around 33% for American Indian and Alaska Native people. Counts are too small to report Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women reliably.

Over time

Rates across the years.

Suicide death rates sat between 10.5 and 13 for four decades, fell sharply through the 1990s to a low of 10.4 in 2000, and have climbed almost every year since — apart from a dip in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, which had reversed by 2021.

5101519501960197019801990200020102020
Crude rate per 100,000, 1950–2024. CDC/NCHS through 2018, CDC thereafter. Crude rather than age-adjusted because no CDC feed publishes an age-adjusted figure for 2019–2022 and CDC WONDER, which holds them, refuses programmatic access. The two measures are close in recent decades and part company in the early years: 1950 reads 11.4 crude against 13.2 age-adjusted.

By method

57% of suicide deaths involve a firearm.

Guns are the most deadly way to die by suicide. When a gun is used, survival is rare. Firearm suicide rates vary widely across states — and states with more firearm suicides tend to have higher overall suicide rates.

That’s why putting time and space between a person and a deadly method can save lives.

Highest firearm share
  • Alabama74%
  • Wyoming73%
  • Mississippi70%
  • Kentucky68%
  • Louisiana68%
  • South Carolina68%
Lowest firearm share
  • Hawaii16%
  • Massachusetts28%
  • District of Columbia30%
  • New York30%
  • New Jersey33%
  • California38%

All means · 2016

  • Firearm51%

    22,938 deaths

  • Suffocation25.9%

    11,642 deaths

  • Poisoning14.9%

    6,698 deaths

  • Fall2.5%

    1,107 deaths

  • All other means5.7%

    2,580 deaths

44,965 deaths in 2016. 2016 is the most recent year CDC publishes a full breakdown by means; the firearm share has risen since, to 57% in 2024.

Find out how to help someone stay away from lethal means when it matters.

SPRC free lethal means counseling course

CDC, 2024. Population-level method data.

Globally

Suicide is not just an American problem.

Age-standardised rates across 185 countries. Comparisons between countries are weaker than comparisons within one: recording practices differ, and in many places suicide is criminalised or stigmatised in ways that suppress the count badly.

Age-standardised suicide rate by countryFiji: 8.5 per 100,000Tanzania: 9.1 per 100,000W. Sahara: no data per 100,000Canada: 8.1 per 100,000United States of America: 14.2 per 100,000Kazakhstan: 15.2 per 100,000Uzbekistan: 9.1 per 100,000Papua New Guinea: 2.1 per 100,000Indonesia: 1.3 per 100,000Argentina: 7.7 per 100,000Chile: 6.8 per 100,000Dem. Rep. Congo: 15.8 per 100,000Somalia: 15.3 per 100,000Kenya: 8.9 per 100,000Sudan: 3.9 per 100,000Chad: 10.7 per 100,000Haiti: 9.3 per 100,000Dominican Rep.: 4.3 per 100,000Russia: 17.9 per 100,000Bahamas: 2.9 per 100,000Falkland Is.: no data per 100,000Norway: 11.4 per 100,000Greenland: no data per 100,000Fr. S. Antarctic Lands: no data per 100,000Timor-Leste: 4.2 per 100,000South Africa: 21.1 per 100,000Lesotho: 36.7 per 100,000Mexico: 6.9 per 100,000Uruguay: 22 per 100,000Brazil: 6.9 per 100,000Bolivia: 5.1 per 100,000Peru: 1.5 per 100,000Colombia: 4.7 per 100,000Panama: 3.3 per 100,000Costa Rica: 7.6 per 100,000Nicaragua: 4.2 per 100,000Honduras: 3.7 per 100,000El Salvador: 7.8 per 100,000Guatemala: 5.3 per 100,000Belize: 4.6 per 100,000Venezuela: 8.9 per 100,000Guyana: 26.3 per 100,000Suriname: 22.5 per 100,000France: 11.8 per 100,000Ecuador: 7.4 per 100,000Puerto Rico: 4 per 100,000Jamaica: 1.7 per 100,000Cuba: 9.2 per 100,000Zimbabwe: 25.4 per 100,000Botswana: 10.4 per 100,000Namibia: 11.1 per 100,000Senegal: 11.6 per 100,000Mali: 8.3 per 100,000Mauritania: 4.9 per 100,000Benin: 11.8 per 100,000Niger: 8.9 per 100,000Nigeria: 8.8 per 100,000Cameroon: 13.8 per 100,000Togo: 15.2 per 100,000Ghana: 8.1 per 100,000Côte d'Ivoire: 12.7 per 100,000Guinea: 8.2 per 100,000Guinea-Bissau: 12.2 per 100,000Liberia: 9.6 per 100,000Sierra Leone: 9.7 per 100,000Burkina Faso: 15.4 per 100,000Central African Rep.: 18.7 per 100,000Congo: 11.2 per 100,000Gabon: 10.5 per 100,000Eq. Guinea: 10.5 per 100,000Zambia: 13.3 per 100,000Malawi: 14.2 per 100,000Mozambique: 19 per 100,000eSwatini: 31.8 per 100,000Angola: 14.6 per 100,000Burundi: 14.8 per 100,000Israel: 4.4 per 100,000Lebanon: 0.7 per 100,000Madagascar: 10 per 100,000Palestine: 0.8 per 100,000Gambia: 8.3 per 100,000Tunisia: 1.8 per 100,000Algeria: 2.3 per 100,000Jordan: 0.7 per 100,000United Arab Emirates: 1.7 per 100,000Qatar: 4.2 per 100,000Kuwait: 2.2 per 100,000Iraq: 3.8 per 100,000Oman: 0.9 per 100,000Vanuatu: 18.2 per 100,000Cambodia: 5 per 100,000Thailand: 15.4 per 100,000Laos: 5 per 100,000Myanmar: 2.9 per 100,000Vietnam: 7 per 100,000North Korea: 7.6 per 100,000South Korea: 20.6 per 100,000Mongolia: 19.8 per 100,000India: 12.6 per 100,000Bangladesh: 2.9 per 100,000Bhutan: 5.1 per 100,000Nepal: 11.1 per 100,000Pakistan: 6.5 per 100,000Afghanistan: 5.3 per 100,000Tajikistan: 3.1 per 100,000Kyrgyzstan: 7.8 per 100,000Turkmenistan: 7.5 per 100,000Iran: 4.1 per 100,000Syria: 0.7 per 100,000Armenia: 1.9 per 100,000Sweden: 11.7 per 100,000Belarus: 11.7 per 100,000Ukraine: 17 per 100,000Poland: 11.5 per 100,000Austria: 10.2 per 100,000Hungary: 11.4 per 100,000Moldova: 11.9 per 100,000Romania: 7.2 per 100,000Lithuania: 16.8 per 100,000Latvia: 12 per 100,000Estonia: 12.5 per 100,000Germany: 8.2 per 100,000Bulgaria: 6.3 per 100,000Greece: 3.4 per 100,000Turkey: 2.6 per 100,000Albania: 2.1 per 100,000Croatia: 10.6 per 100,000Switzerland: 9.9 per 100,000Luxembourg: 6.2 per 100,000Belgium: 14.3 per 100,000Netherlands: 9.1 per 100,000Portugal: 7.2 per 100,000Spain: 6.2 per 100,000Ireland: 7.7 per 100,000New Caledonia: no data per 100,000Solomon Is.: 22.5 per 100,000New Zealand: 11.1 per 100,000Australia: 11.7 per 100,000Sri Lanka: 14 per 100,000China: 6.8 per 100,000Taiwan: no data per 100,000Italy: 4.6 per 100,000Denmark: 7.6 per 100,000United Kingdom: 8.8 per 100,000Iceland: 10.8 per 100,000Azerbaijan: 1.6 per 100,000Georgia: 4.6 per 100,000Philippines: 4 per 100,000Malaysia: 5.6 per 100,000Brunei: 2.8 per 100,000Slovenia: 13.2 per 100,000Finland: 12.6 per 100,000Slovakia: 7.6 per 100,000Czechia: 10.3 per 100,000Eritrea: 20.2 per 100,000Japan: 14.7 per 100,000Paraguay: 6.5 per 100,000Yemen: 5.2 per 100,000Saudi Arabia: 1.6 per 100,000N. Cyprus: no data per 100,000Cyprus: 2.7 per 100,000Morocco: 3 per 100,000Egypt: 0.7 per 100,000Libya: 5.1 per 100,000Ethiopia: 10.7 per 100,000Djibouti: 10.1 per 100,000Somaliland: no data per 100,000Uganda: 11.6 per 100,000Rwanda: 13.6 per 100,000Bosnia and Herz.: 5.7 per 100,000Macedonia: 4.6 per 100,000Serbia: 9.4 per 100,000Montenegro: 8.9 per 100,000Kosovo: no data per 100,000Trinidad and Tobago: 11.6 per 100,000S. Sudan: 13.4 per 100,000
Per 100,000
  • under 3.9
  • 3.9–6.9
  • 6.9–9.7
  • 9.7–13.4
  • 13.4 and over
  • no data

WHO Global Health Observatory, 2021. Rates are modelled for countries without high-quality vital registration, and should be read as estimates rather than counts.

A newer question

AI and suicide.

People bring suicidal thoughts to chatbots at a scale no crisis line has ever handled, and a small number of deaths have been linked to those conversations.

  • over a million

    people a week bring explicit signs of suicidal planning to ChatGPT — 0.15% of its weekly users

  • 35

    deaths across 24 incidents where AI interaction was alleged to have contributed, March 2023 to August 2026

  • 17

    were people other than the AI user. These cases include homicides, not only deaths of the person using it.

  • 29%

    of the people who died were children, aged 11 to 17

Sustained, intensive use

Daily engagement over weeks or months, rather than one conversation.

Instead — Have moderate use inside a balanced life — spend time outdoors, with friends, and with hobbies.

Used alone, at night

In private, at the hours when nobody else was awake to ask.

Instead — Practice responsible use at night. Things feel heavier after dark, and sleep deprivation makes everything harder. Get rest, and come back to it in the morning with a fresh perspective.

Told the chatbot first

Suicidal thoughts and plans disclosed there before any person in their life.

Instead — Be careful what personal information you let an AI know and store about you. If you do tell one, treat it as a practice run that helps you work up to telling a real person.

Strong parasocial attachment

Related to as a confidant, a friend, or a romantic partner.

Instead — AI is not capable of the feelings and attachment a reciprocal relationship needs. Treat it as a tool, and prioritize the real people in your life.

Hopelessness met with agreement

Validated rather than questioned or redirected.

Instead — AI learns and aligns with your communication style, which makes agreeing with you the path of least resistance. Think critically about what is true when using AI, and always check for accuracy and quality.

Safety features absent or ineffective

Where crisis detection existed at all, it did not prevent harm.

Instead — Do not act on advice from AI, especially life-altering advice. Talk to a real person about important matters like this at 988 text or call line.

Usage: OpenAI, October 2025 — figures they call hard to measure. Deaths: aimortality.org, to September 2026, where AI was alleged to contribute, not established. 18 users and 17 others killed by a user: not a suicide count. What to aim for instead comes from the pattern, not from trials.