Sept. 30, 2022 -- The number of people in the United States who died by suicide increased 4% in 2021 compared to the previous year, theThe agency said 47,646 people died by suicide in 2021 compared to 45,979 in 2020. The number of suicides had fallen the two previous years. Before that, the national suicide rate increased 35% from 1999 to 2018, when it hit a peak of 48,344, the NCHS said.
Provisional numbers showed the number of males dying by suicide in 2021 was four times that for females – 38,025 compared to 9,621. The age group with the biggest percentage increase was males 15 to 24, which saw an 8% increase from 2020 to 2021. “Suicides did not skyrocket the way a lot of people thought they would” during the pandemic, Doreen Marshall, PhD, a psychologist and vice president of mission engagement with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, toldThat may have been because people were “trying to head off what we were afraid would happen,” she said.
"We can't jump to any conclusions," Cerel said."But we need to be looking out for younger girls, as well."