Health Disparities in Suicide: Who Is Most at Risk, and What Helps

Suicide and suicide attempts are serious public health problems, with lasting emotional, mental, physical and economic effects — including for people living with their own suicide risk or mental health challenges ("lived experience").

Conditions shape risk

Suicide and suicidal behavior are influenced by the conditions in which people live, play, work and learn — sometimes called social determinants of health. They include racism and discrimination, economic hardship (such as high unemployment), poverty, a lack of affordable housing and educational opportunity, and barriers to physical and mental health care. Other factors that raise risk include relationship problems or feeling disconnected, easy access to lethal means among people at risk, violence such as child abuse and neglect, adverse childhood experiences, bullying and serious health conditions.

Anyone can be at risk, but some groups face more of these conditions and have higher rates of suicide or attempts than the U.S. population overall — health disparities. They include veterans, rural residents, sexual and gender minorities, middle-aged adults, people of color, workers in certain occupations and tribal populations. Addressing these conditions and other risk factors can help prevent suicide.

Who is affected

Middle-aged and older adults

• Adults 35–64 account for almost half of all U.S. suicides (2024 data); suicide is the 6th leading cause of death at these ages.
• In this age group, rates were highest among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) and non-Hispanic White men, and likewise among AI/AN and White women.
• Adults 80–84 have the highest suicide rates of any age.

Youth and young adults

• People 10–24 account for 13% of suicides; suicide is their second leading cause of death.
• In 2023, 20% of high school students seriously considered suicide and 9% attempted it in the past year; girls were more likely than boys to do both.
• Their emergency department (ED) visit rate for self-harm was 372.02 per 100,000 in 2023, versus 113.42 for adults 35–64 — an estimated 240,778 visits.
• Girls and young women had a rate of 532.07 per 100,000, over 2.5 times that of boys and young men (202.63) — and more than double the girls' rate in 2001 (244.2).

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people

Data on suicide deaths among sexual minorities are limited, but in 2023, 1 in 5 high school students identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual reported a suicide attempt in the past year — more than three times the rate among heterosexual students. Among sexual minority people, past-year attempts were reported by 10.1% of those 12–17, 4.8% of those 18–25 and 1.3% of those 26–49.

Veterans

In 2023, 6,398 veterans died by suicide. Suicide was the 12th leading cause of death among veterans overall and the 2nd among veterans under 45, and the veteran suicide rate was about twice that of non-veteran adults.

Race and ethnicity

In 2024, rates were highest among non-Hispanic AI/AN and non-Hispanic White people. Suicide is the 8th leading cause of death among non-Hispanic AI/AN people, whose age-adjusted rate is higher than that of Hispanic AI/AN people. It ranks 9th among Hispanic people and 11th among non-Hispanic people of all races.

People with disabilities

Data are limited, but a 2022 study found adults with any disability were 2–3 times as likely to report suicidal thoughts, 2–4 times as likely to report a plan and 2–3 times as likely to report an attempt. Reported mental distress — itself a risk factor — was 4.6 times as common (32.9% vs. 7.2%).

Workers

Industry is the type of workplace; occupation is the kind of work.

The workplace is an important place for prevention, since many adults spend much of their time there.

What CDC is doing

CDC supports states, tribes, territories, nonprofits and universities in four priorities: data, science, action (building the foundation for a National Suicide Prevention Program) and collaboration. Its Comprehensive Suicide Prevention program targets groups with suicide disparities, using strategies from CDC's Suicide Prevention Resource for Action:

• strengthen economic supports;
• create protective environments;
• improve access to and delivery of suicide care;
• promote healthy connections;
• teach coping and problem-solving skills;
• identify and support people at risk;
• lessen harms and prevent future risk.

Examples from funded partners

The workplace is an important place for prevention, because many adults spend so much of their time there; NIOSH has more on workplace strategies.

Where you live

Suicide rates vary substantially by region, and rise as population density falls and areas become more rural: big cities (large and central metro areas) have the lowest rates, and the most rural areas (noncore and non-metro) the highest. In rural communities, funded partners are:

• promoting safe storage of firearms to reduce access to lethal means (North Carolina and Vermont);
• identifying and supporting people at risk, with gatekeeper training in rural counties (North Carolina and Tennessee), including for staff of rural schools (North Carolina).

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org, to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Sources

Based on "Health Disparities in Suicide," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The section on where you live was missing from the imported page and is taken from the page as published.