Age-Adjusted Suicide Rate Increased From 2014 to 2017 and Then Plateaued

THURSDAY, Sept. 24, 2026 (HealthDay News) — The age-adjusted suicide rate increased from 2014 to 2017 and then did not change significantly from 2017 through 2024, according to a September data brief published by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Matthew F. Garnett, M.P.H., and Anne M. Zehner, M.P.H., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, used data from the National Vital Statistics System to examine changes in suicide rates in the United States from 2023 to 2024.

The researchers found an increase in the overall age-adjusted suicide rate from 13.0 to 14.0 deaths per 100,000 standard population from 2014 to 2017, with no significant change from 2017 to 2024 (13.7). Between 2023 and 2024, there were decreases in suicide rates for women aged 25 years and older in each age group and for boys and men aged 15 to 24 and 25 to 44 years. Rates decreased for suffocation-related suicide among boys and men and poisoning-related suicide among girls and women from 2023 to 2024. There was variation in suicide rates across states in 2024, from 5.7 to 29.7 in the District of Columbia and Alaska, respectively.

“Among both males and females, the rates for 2023 and 2024 were lowest among people ages 10 to 14,” the authors write. “In both years, the rate for males was highest among men age 75 and older, and the rate for females was highest among women ages 45 to 64.”

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