Uncovering the Harsh Truth: The Staggering Suicide Statistics of 2020 

ABOUT THIS POST: Uncovering the Harsh Truth: The Staggering Suicide Statistics of 2020 provides a list of the 2020 Suicide Statistics as well as a host of compelling information with pertinent quotes by suicide epidemiologists, researchers, and authors.

Eleven years ago, I lost my 20-year-old son, my only child, to suicide. I’ve been searching ever since for an answer as to why he died by suicide. Dylan had a promising future: he was a sophomore on a full academic scholarship to a prestigious university; he loved playing and composing on guitar and piano; he had grown up in a tight-knit group of good friends.

This blog, My Forever Son: Chronicling Grief, Hope, and Healing After Losing My Son to Suicide, came about in 2015. I was 3 years into grief, I’d made a decision to want to learn to live again, and I journaled my way through grief and despair to hope and healing.

There is no suffering greater than that which drives people to suicide; suicide defines the moment in which mental pain exceeds the human capacity to bear it.

John T. Maltsberger, M.D., past president of the American Association of Suicidology, practicing psychiatrist, and teacher at Harvard Medical School.

If You’ve Lost A Child to Suicide

• If you’ve lost a child to suicide, The Compassionate Friends offers a resource for parents: ” Surviving Your Child’s Suicide.”

• AFSP, the American Foundation for Suicide prevention provides numerous resources for where to turn after losing a loved one to suicide. AFSP is “dedicated to advancing knowledge of suicide and the ability to prevent it, and in supporting those who are bereaved after suicide loss.” (AFSP Mission Statement)

• Additional Facts and Statistics can be found at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The information below can be found in detail at AFSP.

The Startling Truth Behind Every 11 Minutes

What I’ve Learned These Past 10 Years:

• Understanding Suicide: the amount of suicide research is increasing and ongoing
• Collecting Suicide Research: the quality, quantity, and caliber of suicide research is vast
• Implementing Suicide Awareness and Prevention: is being introduced and implemented in school systems amongst teachers, students, and administrative staff
• Studying Why: suicide epidemiologists are studying why suicides amongst children ages 10-14 are increasing
• Breaking the Stigma of Suicide: the news media and public are Being educated more about death by suicide
• Ongoing Efforts to Change How We Talk about Suicide: Semantics are everything–Efforts are ongoing to change “commit suicide” to “died by suicide.”

Staggering Statistics about Suicide in the United States

When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain.

Kaye Redfield Jamison, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide

Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States in 2018. Suicide was responsible for more than 48,000 deaths in 2018, resulting in about one death every 11 minutes.

On average, 132 Americans died by suicide each day.

1.4 million Americans attempted suicide.

90% of those who died by suicide had a diagnosable mental health condition at the time of their death.

These are staggering statistics. Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. And these statistics are from 2018. Much has happened since: A global pandemic, especially, forcing isolation in a world where life is lived connected. Mental illness rates have increased as have suicide statistics, but the Center for Disease Control collects data in retrospect, culling numbers from the previous year. We will not know the fallout from 2020 until at least next year.

Additional facts about suicide in the United States

The age-adjusted suicide rate in 2018 was 14.2 per 100,000 individuals.

The rate of suicide is highest in middle-aged white men.

In 2018, men died by suicide 3.56x more often than women.

On average, there are 132 suicides per day.

White males accounted for 69.67% of suicide deaths in 2018.

In 2018, firearms accounted for 50.57% of all suicide deaths.

I think people don’t understand
how intimately tied suicide is to mental illness, particularly to
depressive illness and bipolar illness.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Over 950,000 years of potential life were lost to suicide before age 65.

Firearms accounted for slightly more than half (50.54%) of all suicide deaths.

Suicide deaths and attempts cost $69 billion in combined work-loss and medical cost in 2015.

10.3% of Americans have thought about suicide

54% of Americans have been affected by suicide

Men died by suicide 3.6x more often than women. Women were 1.4x more likely to attempt suicide.

48,344 Americans died by suicide.

Second (2nd) leading cause of death for ages 10-34

Fourth (4th) leading cause of death for ages 35-54

In 2017, the suicide rate was 1.5x higher for Veterans than for non-Veteran adults over the age of 18.

Read more at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. All facts and statistics information provided by the CDC, 2018 Fatal Injury Reports (accessed from www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal.html on 3/1/20). Find additional citation information at afsp.org/statistics.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “suicide rates have increased by 30% since 1999. Nearly 45,000 lives were lost to suicide in 2016 alone. Comments or thoughts about suicide — also known as suicidal ideation — can begin small like, “I wish I wasn’t here” or “Nothing matters.” But over time, they can become more explicit and dangerous.”

NAMI, National Alliance for Mental Illness

Read more about how I’ve coped, grieved, and found my way back to life after losing my son to suicide at My Forever Son

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Need Help? Know Someone Who Does?

Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

• Call 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255)
• Use the https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/
• For more information about resources to help, visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
• Support resources are available at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/help-yourself/

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Hold onto Hope