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In 2024, 48,824 people in the United States died by suicide, and an estimated 2.9 million people aged 12 and older said they had attempted it. Emergency departments (EDs) are an important place to follow suicidal behavior almost in real time. After ED visits for suspected suicide attempts by adolescents rose during 2020–2021 and fell in 2022, there was little recent data — especially for adults 26 and older. This CDC report fills that gap for 2021–2025.
How it was measured
- National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP): de-identified ED data from state and local health departments, usually within 24 hours of a visit. About 83% of U.S. EDs take part.
- To keep reporting consistent, only 3,184 of 5,398 facilities (59.0%) were included — together 80.6% of the ED visits sent to NSSP.
- A validated definition that excludes non-suicidal self-harm picked out suspected suicide attempts. Results are visit proportions: attempts per 10,000 ED visits for any reason, which adjusts for changes in how busy EDs were.
Five years at a glance
- 833,335 ED visits for suspected suicide attempts among 527,183,306 ED visits in all — 15.8 per 10,000.
- Females: 502,452 visits (60.3%), 17.4 per 10,000. Males: 328,962 (39.5%), 13.8 per 10,000.
- Adolescents aged 12–17 had the most visits (207,028, 24.8%) and the highest proportion — 82.2 per 10,000, and 120.0 for girls — in every month.
2021 vs 2025
Monthly visit numbers barely moved (averaging 13,668 in 2021 and 13,889 in 2025), but as a share of all ED visits they fell 7.0%, from 16.6 to 15.5 per 10,000.
| Group | 2021 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 16.6 | 15.5 | −7.0% |
| Females | 18.8 | 16.8 | −10.7% |
| Males | 14.1 | 13.8 | −1.7% |
| 11 and under | 2.2 | 2.0 | −5.3% |
| 12–17 | 99.6 | 78.9 | −20.8% |
| 18–25 | 33.6 | 33.7 | +0.2% |
| 26–34 | 19.3 | 19.8 | +2.6% |
| 35–44 | 16.4 | 16.7 | +1.4% |
| 45–54 | 13.0 | 13.8 | +5.9% |
| 55–64 | 8.3 | 9.6 | +15.2% |
| 65 and older | 3.1 | 3.5 | +12.3% |
Suspected suicide attempts per 10,000 ED visits for any reason.
- Among 12- to 17-year-olds, the drop was bigger for girls (−22.3%) than boys (−8.9%).
- The adolescents' decline had been larger by 2024 (−26.5%), so there was a small rise from 2024 to 2025 — and a rise for children 11 and under too.
- Adults 26 and older saw significant increases in most age groups during 2022–2025 compared with 2021.
ED visits for suspected suicide attempts by age group and month, 2021–2025. Image from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Why the groups moved differently
There is no single cause of suicide attempts. Risk factors include job or money problems, lost relationships and experiencing violence; protective factors include access to health care, feeling connected to others, and good coping and problem-solving skills. These shifted over the period:
- Adolescents, especially girls, reported high disconnection while the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted routines — and that eased later on.
- Older adults were more likely to have lost long-standing support, such as close family and friends.
- Youth prevention — for example the 2021 Surgeon General's Advisory on Protecting Youth Mental Health — has had focused attention, and may have helped.
These are only some of many possible explanations. Note too that suicide attempts become more likely to be fatal with age, especially from 65.
Limitations
- Not every attempt reaches an ED — including those that end in death and many among young people — so attempts are undercounted; people may also have avoided care early in the period, during the pandemic.
- It is unclear whether people sought ED care for suicide attempts as they did for other conditions, which affects the proportions.
- Without catchment population sizes, rates per population could not be calculated.
- Administrative data and brief medical records likely miss some attempts.
- Results cannot be compared directly with studies using other definitions.
- State and local trends were not examined.
What to do
- Prevention for everyone — especially groups with high or rising proportions: adolescents, still high despite the fall, and adults 26 and older, less often studied but rising.
- Timely monitoring, given the 2024–2025 upturn among children and adolescents.
- A comprehensive approach, as in CDC's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program, its Suicide Prevention Resource for Action and the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention:
- downstream — supporting people in crisis, including ED strategies such as the Zero Suicide framework;
- upstream — building connectedness, teaching coping and problem-solving, and strengthening economic supports, so people do not become suicidal in the first place.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or visit 988lifeline.org.
Sources
Based on "Emergency Department Visits for Suspected Suicide Attempts — United States, 2021–2025," by Bhavna Singichetti, Alison L. Cammack, Patrick Rekieta, Amy Schumacher, Katharina L. van Santen, Wojciech Kaczkowski, Lakshmi Radhakrishnan, Kayla N. Anderson, Michael F. Ballesteros and Robin Lee, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 75(24), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licencia: CC0 1.0 (dominio público) · Adaptado de www.cdc.gov
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