Sex and Age Suicide Statistics

Are women or men at higher risk?

Suicide was the eighth leading cause of death for males and the sixteenth leading cause of death for females in 2004.

Almost four times as many males as females die by suicide.

Firearms, suffocation, and poison are by far the most common methods of suicide, overall. However, men and women differ in the method used, as shown below.

Firearms:
Males - 57%
Females - 32%

Suffocation:
Males - 23%
Females - 20%

Poisoning:
Males - 13%
Females - 38%

Is suicide common among children and young people?

In 2004, suicide was the third leading cause of death in each of the following age groups. Of every 100,000 young people in each age group, the following number died by suicide:

Children ages 10 to 14 — 1.3 per 100,000

Adolescents ages 15 to 19 — 8.2 per 100,000

Young adults ages 20 to 24 — 12.5 per 100,000

As in the general population, young people were much more likely to use firearms, suffocation, and poisoning than other methods of suicide, overall. However, while adolescents and young adults were more likely to use firearms than suffocation, children were dramatically more likely to use suffocation.

There were also gender differences in suicide among young people, as follows:

Almost four times as many males as females ages 15 to 19 died by suicide.

More than six times as many males as females ages 20 to 24 died by suicide.

Are older adults at risk?

Older Americans are disproportionately likely to die by suicide.

• Of every 100,000 people ages 65 and older, 14.3 died by suicide in 2004. This figure is higher than the national average of 10.9 suicides per 100,000 people in the general population.
  
• Non-Hispanic white men age 85 or older had an even higher rate, with 17.8 suicide deaths per 100,000.
  

Source: Nation Institue of Mental Health (NIMH)