Why are US suicide rates at an 80-year high?

Deaths by suicide in the United States are at their highest in more than 80 years, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since the turn of the century, US suicide rates have ticked up almost every year. In 2022, the provisional number of deaths by suicide was just under 50,000, or 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people, a 3% increase from 2021. That level is unmatched since 1941, when the United States was on the precipice of World War II.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, call 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

One shimmer of light in the latest numbers was a decline in the suicide rate in young people—by 18% among 10- to 14-year-olds and by 9% among 15- to 24-year-olds.

But older adults remain at especially high risk, particularly males aged over 75 (43.7 deaths per 100,000 people). American Indian and Alaska Native non-Hispanic people of all ages had the highest suicide rate (26.7 deaths per 100,000 people) of any race group.

Sarah Ketchen Lipson is an associate professor of health law, policy, and management at Boston University School of Public Health and the principal investigator of the Healthy Minds Network, where she leads the nation’s largest survey of mental health in higher education.

Here, she talks about why the overall rates are so high and what more the United States could be doing to reduce deaths: