Suicide Statistics Are Alarming When Viewed in Context

Almost 800,000 Deaths Per Year Worldwide, and Most Are Young People

With all the talk of casualties of the Gaza war, genocide, and COVID, it got me thinking about statistics about death. Specifically, how do the statistics of suicide stack up to other causes of death? And more particularly, what are they by age group, since suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people in the US — those ages 10 to 14 and 25 to 34.

When I googled the numbers for deaths by suicide worldwide, even I, who have read a lot on the topic since losing my son to it in 2021, was astonished.

Almost 800,000 people a year die by suicide worldwide. That’s almost one million people, every single year…in deaths that could possibly be prevented.

Narrowing that down to the US, though, where we can look at more granular data, we can see that, worse than the high numbers, the deaths are indeed very disproportionately skewed by age group. So a lot more young folks die by suicide than by, say, cancer or heart disease.

Why is this important? Because it shows us how resources should be proportionally allocated to this public health problem, or at least I believe it should.

Also, when deaths are discussed in general, they are often portrayed in misleading lumped-together factoids.

For example, let’s look at the top sentence on a page on the web site USA Facts:

“Heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19 were responsible for nearly half of the deaths nationwide in 2021. Still, the age-adjusted death rates of both cancer and heart disease have declined over the last 20 years.”

What’s missing? No mention of suicide. Seriously?

How about the fact that the average age of cancer and heart disease deaths are in older people, as one would expect? I’m not saying those aren’t important diseases, and of course they need resources.

But let’s look at a color chart by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) which shows actual causes of death in the US by age group — look at the blocks in teal green:

l’ll now circle them in red for emphasis, then explain more why this is important:

Sorry for my bad redlining there…but hopefully you get the point.

Let’s start with age group 10-14, the first group for which suicide is (sadly) relevant:

After accidents (“unintentional injury”), suicide is the #2 cause of death(!).

After that, it’s in order, cancerous tumors (“malignant neoplasms”), homicide, congenital abnormalities.

How about age 15-24?

Here it’s #3 behind homicides.

Age group 25-34? Back to suicide being #2 after accidents.

Moving up to age group 35-44, we finally see suicide edging down, to #5, below accidents, covid, heart disease, and malignant tumors. Still not great, but we start to see other causes taking precedence.

By 45-54, suicide is #7, and by 65+, it’s not even in the top 10 (although in 2021 there were over 9,652 people over 65 who took their own life).

Now, look at this sleight of hand, which I believe encapsulates why we don’t take suicide more seriously (that and the stigma, shame and guilt):

The CDC has this nifty chart column for “All Ages”:

(It’s in two parts due to my inability to capture the whole length in one):

Well, look what we have there! Icky old suicide has been handily whitewashed off the “All Ages” cause of death chart. You wouldn’t even knew it was a problem if you looked at that column!

So let me say this in one sentence now: Suicide is *THE* most serious health issue facing our young people today. Let’s start acting like it and devote the resources we need to it.

But I’m not about just sitting around and whining about the stats. I believe it’s crucial to discuss and advocate for better treatment (and to educate and advocate for yourself and your own children as the case may be), and that’s mainly what I do here on this blog, if you look at my other posts.

However, I felt a standalone post was needed to show how the statistics are skewed, and what a serious problem this is. And yes, the fact that it strikes young people who lose long potential lifetimes is a factor.

***

One day, driving my son home in the car shortly before his suicide, I said to him I would give my life for his, and I meant it. Because I am 58 years old, and although I’d like to live a long time, I’ve already had my youth. I would have given that to him…but he would have needed to want it.

He didn’t, though. He died at age 22.

But there are still a lot of young people at risk. Let’s do better for them.