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Suicide Rate
About This Indicator
What Is the Suicide Rate?
Suicide deaths per 100,000 people, age-adjusted so an aging population does not move the line, yearly since 1980 from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Why Does It Matter?
Each suicide is a private act, but the rate moves with shared conditions: jobs, drink and drugs, and access to lethal means. A suicide by gun or by overdose counts here and again in Firearm Deaths or Drug Overdose Deaths, which take in every intent.
Can Politics Influence It?
Mental health care, crisis lines like 988, opened in 2022, and firearm laws reach it; firearms are the most common means.
Key Idea
Many suicidal crises are brief, and most attempt survivors do not later die by suicide, so how deadly the means at hand are can decide the outcome. The rate rose more than a third from 2000 to 2018 under presidents of both parties, and a trend that long says more about where a term began than what was done during it.
Scored: A Faster Fall or Slower Rise Ranks Better
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics. data.cdc.gov 9j2v-jamp for 1980-2017; w26f-tf3h from 2018, and 489q-934x for any newer year.
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