MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep

MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

0149-21951545-861X

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

32134905

7367093

mm6909a7

10.15585/mmwr.mm6909a7

Quick Stats

QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Suicide Rates,* by Sex and Three Most Common Methods^† — United States, 2000–2018

Reported by: Sally C. Curtin, MA, sac2@cdc.gov, 301-458-4142; Pedro Martinez, MPH.

0632020

699249249

All material in the MMWR Series is in the public domain and may be used and reprinted without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.

The three most common methods of suicide among males and females during 2000–2018 were by firearm, suffocation, and poisoning. After remaining steady from 2000 to 2006, age-adjusted firearm suicide rates increased during 2006–2018 among males (from 10.3 to 12.6 per 100,000) and females (from 1.4 to 1.9). Suffocation suicide rates among males and females increased steadily during 2000–2018 (from 3.4 to 6.7 for males and from 0.7 to 1.9 for females). In contrast to the other suicide methods, poisoning suicide rates during 2000–2018 initially increased and then declined, from 2.3 in 2010 to 1.9 in 2018 among males and from 2.0 in 2015 to 1.7 in 2018 among females. Throughout the period 2000–2018, suicide rates by all methods were higher among males than among females, with the greatest difference in the rates for suicide by firearm.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/deaths.htm.

For more information on this topic, CDC recommends the following link: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/index.html.

Age-adjusted rates per 100,000 based on the 2000 U.S. standard population.

^{^†} The three most common methods of suicide are determined by numbers of deaths and are identified with International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition codes X72–X74 (firearm), X70 (suffocation), and X60–X69 (poisoning). In 2018, among males there were 34,915 suicides by these three methods (92.5% of all male suicides), and among females there were 9,594 (90.7% of all female suicides).