Suicidal Thoughts and Knowing Someone Lost to Suicide: U.S. Adults, 2023

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.

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, with about 49,000 deaths in 2023, and many more people seriously think about it. Knowing someone who died by suicide can raise a person’s own risk. Timely data on both help public health agencies plan prevention.

The survey

In October–November 2023, the National Center for Health Statistics’ Rapid Surveys System — an online survey drawing on two probability-based panels, weighted to approximate the U.S. adult population — asked 7,046 adults two questions:

• In the past 12 months, did you seriously think about trying to kill yourself?
• Do you personally know anyone who has died by suicide?

What it found

• 5.3% of U.S. adults had seriously thought about suicide in the past year. The share was higher among adults aged 18–24 and 25–44, among people with lower household incomes, and — by sexual orientation — highest among bisexual people.
• 42.4% — more than two in five — personally knew someone who had died by suicide. The share was higher among people 45 and older, non-Hispanic White people, veterans, people with at least some college, and people living outside metropolitan areas.
• Among adults who had thought about suicide, 57.9% knew someone who had died by suicide, against 41.6% of those who had not.

This was the first national survey estimate showing that more than two in five adults have lost someone they knew to suicide.

How reliable is it?

The survey’s response rates were low, so some groups may be underrepresented and the results may carry nonresponse bias. But its estimate of suicidal thoughts closely matches the 5.0% found by the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, as did most subgroup estimates. The findings do not show that knowing someone who died by suicide causes suicidal thoughts, though it can influence them.

Prevention

Suicide is preventable, and its effects reach far into communities. CDC recommends combining strategies from its Suicide Prevention Resource for Action:

• identifying and supporting people at risk;
• postvention — support that helps survivors heal after a suicide;
• safe messaging that emphasizes that suicide can be prevented;
• encouraging help-seeking and healthy peer norms, and reducing the stigma around suicide and mental illness; and
• upstream approaches — healthy policies and protective environments at work and school — that can prevent a crisis before it starts.

Sources

Based on Singichetti B, Wang J, Lee R, Ballesteros MF, Mack KA, "Notes from the Field: Suicidal Thoughts and Knowing Someone Who Died by Suicide Among Adults — United States, 2023," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.