2021 Saw Increase in Number of Suicides, Suicide Rate

FRIDAY, Sept. 30, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- From 2020 to 2021, there was an increase in the number of suicides and in the age-adjusted suicide rate, according to a September Vital Statistics Rapid Release report, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sally C. Curtain, from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues examined age-adjusted and age-specific suicide rates by sex for 2021 and compared them with final 2020 rates. Data were obtained by the National Center for Health Statistics as of May 15, 2022.

The researchers found that the provisional number of suicides was 4 percent higher in 2021 than 2020 (47,646 versus 45,979, respectively). Compared with 2020, the provisional age-adjusted suicide rate was also 4 percent higher in 2021 (14.0 versus 13.5 per 100,000 standard population). Compared with 2020, in 2021, the monthly number of suicides was lower in January, February, and July and higher in all other months. The largest percentage difference occurred in October, with the provisional number 11 percent higher in 2021 (4,211 versus 3,781 suicides). For males, the age-adjusted suicide rate was 3 percent higher in 2021 than 2020, while for females, the age-adjusted suicide rate was 2 percent higher, which was not statistically significant.

"By age group, the largest statistically significant percentage increase from 2020 to 2021 was for males aged 15 to 24, by 8 percent," the authors write. "Although rates increased for females in age groups 10 to 14, 15 to 24, 25 to 34, and 55 to 64, none of the changes were statistically significant."

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