Here are some informative facts and statistics on suicide and suicidal behavior:

Statistic #1: An estimated 4.45 million Americans are survivors of the suicide of a friend, family member or loved one. (TCCY, 2004)

Statistic #2: 5 million living Americans have attempted to kill themselves, and an estimated 765,000 Americans attempt suicide each year. (ibid)

Statistic #3: More than 70% of suicide attempts occur almost completely in secrecy, revealed to either no one or to one or two close friends sworn to secrecy, or perhaps disclosed in an anonymous survey. Of the remaining 30%, (those that are documented in a hospital emergency room, through suicide hotlines, or by police), only a small percentage are ever provided with follow-up care. (Slaby & Garfinkel, 1994)

Statistic #4: In the United States, nearly 40,000 lives are lost each year to suicide, making it the 10th-leading cause of death and the second-leading killer for those ages 15 to 34. (Zoroya, 2012) Suicide now outstrips car accidents in terms of deaths, according to the CDC.

Statistic #5: Fewer than 25% of suicidal students are recieving treatemtn according to one national survey. (Routelege, 2017)

Statistics on who commits suicide

Statistic #5: One out of every 16 people diagnosed with depression will eventually complete suicide. (TCCY, 2004)

Statistic #6: Half of those with schizophrenia attempt suicide, and 1 in 10 succeed. (Zoroya, 2014)

Statistic #7: People with eating disorders are 23 times more likely to die by suicide than people who eat normally, a statistic that makes eating disorders a better predictor of death by suicide than even depression, according to sociologist Steven Stack. (Springen, 2010)

Statistic #8: According to a 2003 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, 4.5% of alcoholics will attempt suicide within five years of their diagnosis of alcoholism. Other studies have found that nearly 40% of patients who seek treatment for alcohol abuse report having attempted suicide – a rate six-fold to 10-fold higher than that among the general population. (ibid) Lifetime suicide risk for alcohol-dependant people has been estimated at 7-10%. (TCCY, 2004)

Statistic #9: One paper found that 5-10% of borderline personality disorder patients will die by suicide, a rate about 40-times higher than the general population. (Springen, 2010)

Statistic #10: Studies have found that suicidal wishes are present in around one-third of people with mild depression, and nearly three-fourths of those who are severely depressed. It’s also estimated that as many as 5% of depressed patients eventually die of suicide – a rate approximately 25-times that of the general population. (Burns, 1980)

Statistics on the method of suicide

Statistic #11: According to 2001 U.S. National statistics, 55% of suicides involved a firearm. Suffocation/hanging and poisoning made up the majority of the rest, each accounting for around one-fifth of suicides. (TCCY, 2004) The remaining 5% included things like jumping from heights, drowning, cutting, and so on.

Statistic #12: Every year in the U.S., more than 16,000 men and women kill themselves with a gun – more people than are killed in gun violence by someone else. A firearm in the home is 11-times more likely to be used in an attempted suicide than in self-defense, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. (ibid)

Statistic #13: A study of suicide attempts found that 78% of all attempts using firearms resulted in death, compared to less than 1% of all suicide attempts involving poisonings or drug overdoses. (TCCY, 2004)

Statistic #14: Women are just half as likely to shoot themselves in the head as men. (Springen, 2010)

Statistic #16: A study in Pennsylvania found that 46% of suicide victims had alcohol in their blood. (TCCY, 2004)

Statistic #17: ‘I’he Golden Gate Bridge has averaged 20-30 suicides a year since 2000; more than 1,400 since the first suicide in 1937. A proposed net system to prevent this would cost $45 million. (DiBlasio, 2012) A record 46 suicides occurred along the Golden Gate Bridge in 2013. (Zoroya, 2014)

Trends in suicide statistics

Statistic #18: In the last 45 years, the suicide rate in the U.S. has jumped by 60%. (Sanders, 2012)

Statistic #19: Suicide rates among youth have been rising even more, with the suicide rate among youth ages 15 to 24 more than tripling in the past 50 years. (O’Caroll et al., 1992)

Statistic #20: A recent study by the World Health Organization estimates that globally, a suicide occurs every 40 seconds. (Zoroya, 2014)

Statistic #21: Homicides have fallen by half since 1991, but U.S. suicide rates continue to climb. They continue to rise against other causes of death as well. The change in number of deaths by cause between 2000 and 2011:

• Suicide: +31%
• Heart disease: -16%
• Prostate cancer: -8%
• Breast cancer: -2%
• Colorectal cancer: -8%
• HIV/AIDS: -42%. (Zoroya, 2014)

 

 

References:

Routledge, C.,( 2017, Sept. 14) “The Campus Left Vs the Mental Ill”, Wall Street Journal, p.A17